
B7F5 



PRESENTED BY 




FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, BOSTON 
Commonwealth Avenue and Clarendon Street 



THE COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES 

OF THE 

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH 

OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 



ON THE OCCASION OF THE 

TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
OF ITS FOUNDATION 



SATURDAY, SUNDAY AND MONDAY 
JUNE 5, 6 AND 7, 1915- 



Compiled and Edited by Edwin P. Wells 



PUBLISHED BY THE CHURCH 
191S 



^i> 



RUMFORD PRESS 
CONCORD, N. H. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Pastors . . . , V 

Introduction XI 

Programme 250TH Anniversary Celebration .... 1 

Preparatory Service, Foreword 9 

Memories of Shawmut Avenue Church, Address by Mr. 

John K. Simpson 9 

Report of the 250TH Anniversary Celebration ... 23 

Address of Welcome, by Mr. Rest F. Curtis 23 

Response, by Mr. George E. Briggs 26 

Address on the History of the Tabernacle Church (Old 

Second), by Mr. A. W. Baker 30 

Address on the Northern Baptist Education Society, by 

President F. L. Anderson, D.D 32 

Address of Rev. Willard E. Waterbury, as Representing 

the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society ... 36 
Address on the Newton Theological Institution, by 

Rev. Charles H. Watson, D.D 43 

Prayer of Invocation, by Rev. Philip A. Nordell, D.D. . . 47 
Prayer of Commemoration, by Rev. Charles H. Spalding, 

D.D 48 

Anniversary Hymn, by Rev. Austen K. de Blois, D.D. . . 51 
Historical Address, by Rev. Austen K. de Blois, D.D. . . 52 

Special Musical Service Programme 102 

Address on the Baptist Ministry, by George E. Horr, D.D., 

LL.D., President of the Newton Theological Institution 106 
Address on the Baptists and Educational Progress, by 

William H. P. Faunce, D.D., LL.D., President of Brown 

University 115 

Baptist Growth and Achievement 122 

Address on the First Church as the Mother of Churches, 

by Rev. W. W. Everts 126 

Address on Baptists and Social Service, by Hon. George 

W. Coleman 138 

Address on the Debt of Foreign Missions to the Bap- 
tists of Massachusetts, by Henry C. Mabie, D.D. . 147 
Address on the Heroic Period, by Rev. Nathan E. Wood, 

D.D 166 



IV CONTENTS 

Address on Some Fruits of the Struggle for Liberty, by 

Rev. Philip S. Moxom, D.D 184 

Address on Baptist Principles and Progress, by Rev. 

Francis H. Rowley, D.D . 195 

The Banquet 202 

Response by Rev. Charles E. Park . 205 

Response by Rev. Samuel R. Maxwell 209 

Response by Rev. George A. Gordon, D.D 212 

Response by Rev. Stephen H. Robbin, D.D 216 

Response by Rev. Alexander Mann, D.D 219 

Appendix 225 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

First Baptist Church — Boston .... Frontispiece 

Invitation to Anniversary Exercises XI S 

Shawmut Avenue Baptist Church 7 <. 

Rev. Rollin H. Neale, D.D 11 / 

Rev. Austen K. de Blois, D.D. 52 y 

Interior View of the Church 102 -" 

Former Pastors 164 * 

One of the Side Entrances of the Church .... 202 



PASTORS 



1665-1915: 250 Years 

1. THOMAS GOULD was selectman of Charlestown, 
Mass. ; founder of this church, June 7, 1665, removed to 
East Boston in 1669 after frequent imprisonment and 
disfranchisement, and held services on the Island until 
1673 when his friend Leverett became Governor of the 
Colony, and he returned to Boston and preached in the 
Ruck House on Salem Street, until his death in 1675. 
He probably composed the confession of faith which 
the church still accepts. 

2. JOHN RUSSELL, Jr., was born in England prior 
to 1640; a prominent resident of Woburn, was ordained 
pastor July 28, 1679. The next year he published in 
London a "Narrative of a Church of Christ in Gospel 
order in Boston, commonly though falsely called 
Anabaptists." His ministry was short for he died 
December 21, 1680. 

3. ISAAC HULL was born in England; first member to 
unite with the church after its organization; pastor, 
1 682-1 689 and again, after an absence from the town, 
1 694-1 699. 

4. JOHN EMBLEM was born in England; co-pastor, 
1684 to 1699, 15 years; died in 1702. 

5. ELLIS CALLENDER joined the church in 1669; 
for over thirty years a "lay preacher"; pastor from 
1708 till his death in 1726; 18 years. 

6. ELISHA CALLENDER, son of Ellis Callender, was 
born in Boston in 1680. He graduated from Harvard 



VI PASTORS 

College in 1710, was co-pastor with his father from 
1718 to 1726 and then sole pastor until his death in 
1738. By his ordination on May 21 , 1718, Thomas 
Hollis, a Baptist merchant of London, became inter- 
ested in the Baptists in Boston, and gave Harvard 
College large sums of money providing especially for 
Baptist students in that institution. In 1720 Elisha 
Callender published a "Century Sermon" commemo- 
rative of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. Thomas 
Hollis asked that "his friend Elisha Callendar" might 
be appointed an "Overseer" of Harvard College but 
his request was denied, though he was the greatest 
benefactor the institution had found. Elisha Callender 
was the first native Baptist preacher of collegiate 
education. 

7. JEREMIAH CONDY was born in 1709, began his 
ministry at Newport in 1731, then spent several years 
in England where latitudinarianism was rampant and 
he never recovered from its influence. He became 
pastor of this church in December, 1738; resigned in 
1764; died in 1768; pastor for nearly twenty-six years. 
He published a sermon in 1747 on the "Death of 
Benjamin Landon," and another in 1767 on "The 
Good Samaritan." 

8. SAMUEL STILLMAN, D.D., was born in Phila- 
delphia February 27, 1737. He preached his first ser- 
mon at Charlestown, S. C, in 1758. He received the 
degree of A.M. from Harvard College in 176 1. He was 
first settled in Bordentown, N. J., 1761-1763. He then 
became assistant pastor of the second church in Bos- 
ton until November, 1764, when he accepted the call 
to this church. He died in office, March 12, 1807. 
He was one of the founders of Brown University, of 
the Education Society, of the Massachusetts Baptist 



PASTORS Vll 

Missionary Society, and of the Warren Association. 
In 1766 he preached on the repeal of the Stamp Act 
from the text "Good news from a far country." He 
published sermons on the French Revolution, and on 
the death of Washington. 
9. JOSEPH CLAY was born at Savannah, Ga., August 
16, 1764. He graduated from Princeton in 1784, was 
appointed U. S. District Judge by Washington in 
1796. After his conversion he became assistant 
pastor in Savannah in 1805, and then he held the same 
position in Boston with Dr. Stillman and became his 
successor in August, 1807. At his installation he 
preached the sermon himself. After a year's service 
he went back to the South, resigned and never re- 
turned. 

10. JAMES M. WINCHELL was born in northeastern 
New York, September 8, 1791. He graduated from 
Brown in 18 12, and became pastor of this church in 
March, 1814, until his death February 22, 1820. He 
published a history of this church. He was known 
throughout the country as editor of Winchell's Watts 
hymn book. 

11. FRANCIS WAYLAND, Jr., D.D., was born in New 
York City, March 11, 1796. He graduated from 
Union College in 18 13, studied medicine three years, 
and theology at Andover one year, then taught at 
Union until he was called to the pastorate of this 
church in 1821. Here he became famous by his ser- 
mon on "The Moral Dignity of the Missionary Enter- 
prise." In 1827 he became president of Brown 
University. He wrote a life of Adoniram Judson, 
another of Thomas Chalmers, and a volume on "The 
Principles and Practises of Baptists." He wrote 
text-books on Intellectual Philosophy, Moral Science, 



Vlll PASTORS 

and Political Economy which were circulated in 
edition after edition, some in foreign languages. 

12. CYRUS P. GROSVENOR was born at Grafton, 
Mass., 1792. He graduated at Dartmouth College, 
and settled at Hartford, Conn., from which place he 
came to Boston and entered the pastorate of this 
church in January, 1827, continuing until September, 
1830. He was a famous abolitionist. 

13. WILLIAM HAGUE, D.D., was born at Pelham, 
N. Y., January 4, 1808. He graduated from Hamilton 
College, in 1826, and from Newton in 1829. He 
was pastor of the second church, Utica, N. Y., before 
coming to Boston in 1831 to the ministry of this 
church which he served for six years. Afterwards he 
was settled at the First Church, Providence, in Boston 
at Federal Street, and Jamaica Plain, in Newark, N. J., 
Albany, New York City, then at Shawmut Avenue 
in Boston again. He wrote for the Watchman under 
the name "Herbert." He was author of "Home Life," 
"Guide to Conversation," and "The Baptist Church 
Transplanted." He received from Harvard in 1863 
the title Doctor of Divinity. 

14. ROLLIN H. NEALE, D.D., was born at Southing- 
ton, Conn., August 29, 1808. He graduated from 
Columbian College in 1830 and from Newton in 1833. 
After serving the First Church, New Haven, for three 
years, he came in 1837 to his second and last pastor- 
ate, a pastorate of forty years, over this church. He re- 
ceived the doctorate from Brown in 1850, and in 1857 
from Harvard, which institution he served as Overseer, 
an honor that had been refused his predecessor a 
century before. He also delivered the Dudleian 
lecture there. He died September 18, 1879. 



PASTORS IX 

15. CEPHAS BENNETT CRANE, D.D., was born at 
Marion, N. Y., March 28, 1833. He graduated from 
Rochester Theological Seminary in i860. He was 
pastor of the South Baptist Church, Hartford, Conn., 
1860-1878, First Church, Boston, 1878-1884, and 
Concord, N. H., 1 885-1 896; now living at Cambridge, 
Mass. 

16. PHILIP STAFFORD MOXOM, D.D., was born at 
Markham, Canada, August 10, 1848. He served in the 
Army of the Cumberland at Fort Donelsen, and en- 
listed in the 17th Illinois Cavalry serving from Octo- 
ber 3, 1863, to November 30, 1865. He graduated 
from the University of Rochester in 1879. He was 
pastor of the First Church, Cleveland, Ohio, 1879- 
1885, First Church, Boston, 1885-1893, when he be- 
came pastor of the South Congregational Church, 
Springfield, Mass. He has been University preacher 
at most of the eastern colleges, was Lowell lecturer, in 
1895, and read papers before the World's Parliament 
of Religions, The World's Peace Congress, and at 
Mohonk. He was president of the Boston Browning 
Society. He wrote "The Aim of Life," " From Jerusa- 
lem to Nicaea," "The Church in the First Three 
Centuries," "The Religion of Hope," and "The Two 
Masters." 

17. NATHAN EUSEBIUS WOOD, D.D., was born at 
Forestville, N. Y., June 6, 1849. He graduated from 
the University of Chicago, in 1872 and the Baptist 
Theological Seminary there in 1875. He was pastor at 
the Centennial Church, Chicago, 1 875-1 877, president 
at Beaver Dam Academy, Wisconsin, 1 877-1 884, 
pastor Memorial Church, Chicago, 1 884-1 887, Strong 
Place Church, Brooklyn, 1 887-1 892, First Church, 
Brookline, Mass., 1 892-1 894, First Church, Boston, 



X PASTORS 

1 894-1 899, president of Newton Theological Insti- 
tution, 1 899-1909, and now pastor of First Baptist 
Church, Arlington, Mass. He wrote "A History 
of the First Baptist Church, Boston," "The Person 
and Work of Jesus Christ," and edited Boise's Exegeti- 
cal Notes on the Greek Epistles of the Apostle Paul. 

18. FRANCIS HAROLD ROWLEY, D.D., was born 
at Hilton, N. Y., July 25, 1854. He graduated from 
Rochester University in 1875 and from the Theological 
Seminary there in 1878. He was pastor at Titusville, 
Pa., 1879-1884, North Adams, Mass., 1884-1892, Oak 
Park, 111., 1892-1896, Fall River, Mass., 1896-1900, 
First Church, Boston, 1900-1910. He was elected in 
1 910 president of Massachusetts Society for Preven- 
tion of Cruelty to Animals, and of American Humane 
Education Society. 

19. AUSTEN KENNEDY de BLOIS was born at 
Wolfville, N. S., December 17, 1866. He studied at 
Acadia College (B.A.), Brown University (M.A. and 
Ph.D.), Newton, Berlin and Leipzig; received the 
degree of D.D. from Brown, and LL.D. from Franklin; 
principal of St. Martin's Seminary, 1891-1894; presi- 
dent of Shurtleff College, 1 894-1 899; pastor of First 
Church, Elgin, 111., 1899-1902, First Church, Chicago, 
1902-1911, First Church, Boston, since 191 1. Lecturer 
on Psychology and Philosophy of Religion at Newton, 
1913-1915; author of "The Pioneer School" and 
"Bible Study in American Colleges." 






^-£/ 



INTRODUCTION 



THE purpose to celebrate the two hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the 
First Baptist Church in Boston had been firmly 
fixed in the minds of the members for several years, 
and plans made in a general and tentative way ; but 
no formal action was taken until October, 1914, 
when a general committee was appointed to take 
the matter in charge and given full authority to 
make all arrangements for the proper observance 
of the occasion. 

This committee was divided into special commit- 
tees with special duties, and work was begun in 
earnest. Frequent meetings were held and a 
programme covering three days, June 5, 6, and 7, 
decided upon, with a preparatory service on Friday 
evening, June 4, with an address on "Memories 
of Shawmut Avenue" to which this church owes 
so much of its life and strength. 

The question of date was in abeyance for some 
time. The first entry in the church book is re- 
corded as follows: 

"The 28th of the third month, 1665, in Charles- 
town, Massachusetts, the Church of Christ, com- 
monly though falsely, called Anabaptists, were 
gathered together, and entered into fellowship and 
communion with each other; engaging to walk 
together in all the appointments of their Lord and 



XH INTRODUCTION 

Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, as far as he should 
be pleased to make known his mind and will unto 
them, by his word and spirit, and then were bap- 
tized, Thomas Goold, Thomas Osborne, Edward 
Drinker, John George — and joined with Richard 
Goodall, William Turner, Robert Lambert, Mary 
Goodall and Mary Newell, who had walked in that 
order in Old England, and to whom God hath since 
joined Isaac Hull, John Farnham Jacob Barney, 
John Russell Jr., John Johnson, George Farley, 
Benjamin Sweetser, Mrs. Sweetser and Ellis Cal- 
lender, all before 1669." 

The date of the organization of the little band is 
given as the "28th of the third month," but in the 
"Old Style," which was in use up to 1752, the 
numbering of the months began with March in- 
stead of January; so that May was their "third 
month." In the change to the new calendar 10 
days were eliminated, so that what was their May 
28 became our June 7, which accordingly was the 
date selected for the anniversary and so celebrated. 

Engraved invitations were issued and sent to 
every known living member, as well as former 
members wherever their addresses could be found, 
and also to the pastors of sister churches in 
greater Boston. Special invitations were also sent 
to each of the four Boston Baptist Associations to 
send its pastor and four delegates to represent it at 
the meeting of Saturday evening, June 5, and every 
one heartily responded. 

Balmy June weather favored the entire celebra- 
tion and the attendance was large, especially at the 



INTRODUCTION Xlll 

Historical Service on Sunday morning. The music 
was of a high order as those attending the different 
services, especially that of Sunday afternoon, can 
testify. 

The church was very tastefully decorated and 
every effort made for the comfort of the large 
number of former members who were in attendance. 

The vestry was given over to the exhibits which 
were quite extensive and varied, not the least 
among them being the very old communion cups 
which are loaned to the Art Museum but brought 
back for this occasion. Also the photographs, 
some of them very rare and choice, of a very large 
number of deceased members, and personal relics 
of each; but it is not possible to give a full list of 
these here. 

Every detail of the celebration passed off success- 
fully, and the large number of attendants from 
among former members of the church, now resident 
in many widely separated communities, as well as 
of friends who never were numbered among its 
members were enthusiastic in their commendation. 

In the pages which follow will be found full re- 
ports of the anniversary exercises. 



250tf) gmttoersiarp Celebration 

of tfje 

jftrgt paptfet Cfmrd) m positon 

3Ftme 4 to 7, 1915 



programme 

Friday, June 4, at 8 P.M. 

Preparatory Service 

Home-Coming and Reunion. Address by Mr. John K. Simpson on 
"Memories of Shawmut Avenue Church." 

Saturday, June 5, at 8 P.M. 

The Baptists of Greater Boston 

Organ — Improvisation on Hymn "Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty" 
Devotional Exercises 

Dean Nathan R. Wood, of the Gordon Bible Institute 
Anthem — "Send Out Thy Light" 
Address of Welcome 

Mr. Rest F. Curtis, Chairman of the General Committee 
Address of Response Hon. George E. Briggs of Lexington 

Addresses by Representatives of Organizations Founded 
Under the Auspices of the First Church : 
"The Tabernacle Church" (Old Second) 

Mr. A. W. Baker, Superintendent of the Sunday School 
"The Northern Baptist Education Society" 

President F. L. Anderson, D.D. 
"The Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society" 

Rev. Willard E. Waterbury, Field Secretary 
"The Newton Theological Institution" 
Rev. Charles H. Watson, D.D., President of Board of Trustees 
Organ — Andantino Cesar Franck 



2 PROGRAMME 

Sunday, June 6, at 10.30 A.M. 

Historical Service 

Organ Prelude — Improvisation on Hymn "The Son of God goes 

forth to War" 
(Congregation rising with the Minister and remaining standing 

through the Gloria.) 
Holy, holy, holy ! Lord God Almighty ! Early in the morning our song 

shall rise to thee, 
Holy! holy! holy! Merciful and mighty! God in three persons, 

Blessed Trinity. 
Responsive Psalm CXLV — Gloria 

Prayer of Invocation Rev. Philip A. Nordell, D.D. 

Anthem — Festival Te Deum in E flat Dudley Buck 

Scripture Reading Rev. Henry Hinckley 

Anthem — "The Lord is my Light" Horatio W. Parker 

Prayer of Commemoration Rev. Charles H. Spalding, D.D. 

Anniversary Hymn — "To Thee, our God, Almighty King" 

Words by Dr. de Blois. Sung to the tune "Coronation," 

composed by Oliver Holden, an active member of this church 

Choir Hymn at Offertory — "The Son of God goes forth to War" 

Arranged by Arthur Sullivan 
Historical Address by the Pastor 

Rev. Austen Kennedy de Blois, Ph.D., D.D., LL.D. 
Prayer, Response and Benediction 
Organ Postlude — Marche Pontificate Lemmcns 



Sunday, June 6, at 3.30 P.M. 

Special Musical Service 

Selections from Haydn's "Creation," by solo singers and 
chorus, under the direction of Mr. James D. D. Comey, organist. 



PROGRAMME 3 

Sunday, June 6, at 8 p.m. 

The Baptists of America 

Rev. Orrin P. Gifford, D.D., of Brookline, Presiding 
Organ Improvisation on Hymn "Awake My Soul " 
Anthem — "The Light of the World" Percy J. Stearns 

Address — "The Baptist Ministry" 
George E. Horr, D.D., 

President of the Newton Theological Institution 
Address — "The Baptists and Educational Progress" 
William H. P. Faunce, D.D., LL.D., President of Brown University 
Organ — Romance Symphony in D Minor Schumann 

Monday, June 7, at 10.30 a.m. 
Baptist Growth and Achievement 

Rev. J. F. Vickert, D.D., 

Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Providence, R. I., Presiding 
Organ — Benedictus Karg-Elert 

Devotional Exercises 
Rev. Charles E. Sawtelle, 

President of the Baptist Ministers' Conference of Greater Boston 
Solo — ' ' Jehovah , Guide Us ' ' Mozart 

Address— "The First Church as the Mother of Churches" 

Rev. William W. Everts 
Address — "Baptists and Social Service" 

Hon. George W. Coleman, President of the Boston City Council 
Address — "Baptists and Missions" Rev. Henry C. Mabie, D.D. 

Monday, June 7, at 2 p.m. 

Service in Honor of the Living Ex-Pastors of the 
First Church 

The Pastor Presiding 
Organ — Largo "New World" Symphony Dvorak 

Devotional Exercises 

Solo — "I will extol Thee" Lansing 

Address — "The Heroic Period" 

Rev. Nathan E. Wood, Pastor 1894- 1900 
2 



4 COMMITTEES 

Address — "Fruits of the Struggle for Liberty" 

Rev. Philip S. Moxom, D.D., Pastor 1885-1893 
Address — "The Baptist Principle and Baptist Progress" 

Rev. Francis H. Rowley, D.D., Pastor 1900-1910 
Organ — Moderato: Minuet Debussy 

Monday, June 7, at 6 p.m. 
Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary Banquet 

Mr. Charles W. Perkins, Toastmaster. Messages of Greeting and 
Fellowship from Other Churches and Denominations: Rev. Charles 
E. Park, Pastor of the First Church in Boston; Rev. Samuel R. 
Maxwell, Pastor of the Second Church in Boston; Rev. George A. 
Gordon, D.D., Pastor of the Old South Church; Rev. Stephen H. 
Roblin, D.D., Pastor of the First Universalist Church; Rev. Alex- 
ander Mann, D.D., Rector of Trinity Church. 

The following were 

THE GENERAL COMMITTEE 

Rest F. Curtis, Chairman Robert Farquhar 

Charles W. Perkins, Vice- William H. Foster 

Chairman Edwin D. Hauthaway 

Edwin P. Wells, Secretary Sterling F. Hayward 

Parke H. Custis, Treasurer Frank K. Linscott 

The Pastor Gen. Nelson A. Miles 

Oakey L. Alexander Dr. Harry S. Parsons 

Erastus B. Badger Ubert K. Pettingill 

Isaac W. Chick James P. Roberts 

Costello C. Converse Edward S. Sears 

Wright P. Crandall Fred R. Sewall 

Barnabas Eldridge George R. Tucker 

William W. Everts Walter L. Van Kleeck 

THE SPECIAL COMMITTEES 
Finance Programme 

Frank K. Linscott, Chairman Rev. Austen K. de Blois, 
Robert Farquhar Chairman. 

Parke H. Custis Rev. William W. Everts 



COMMITTEES 



Printing and Publicity 
Ubert K. Pettingill, Chair- 
man 
Edward S. Sears 
Walter L. Van Kleece 
William H. Foster 

Entertainment 
George R. Tucker, Chairman 
James P. Roberts 

Exhibits 
Wright P. Crandall, Chair- 
man 
Rev. Charles H. Watson 
Rev. William W. Everts 
James B. Newson 
Miss Georgianna D. Learned 
Mrs. Edward S. Sears 
Mrs. Mary B. Tobey 
Mrs. W. P. Crandall 



Banquet 
Oakey L. Alexander, Chairman 
Edwin P. Wells 
Fred R. Sewall 
Mrs. H. B. Houghton 
Mrs. Eugene Fellner 
Mrs. W. P. Crandall 

Decorations 
Miss Mary R. Stark, Chairman 
Mrs. Mabel B. Foss 
Miss Fannie B. Hayden 
Mrs. Florence L. Wilbur 

Music 
James D. D. Comey, Chairman 
Isaac W. Chick 
Barnabas Eldridge 

Executive 
The Officers 

The Chairmen of the Several 
Committees 



PREPARATORY SERVICE. 

FRIDAY, JUNE 4, AT 8 P. M. 



HOME-COMING AND REUNION 

AND ADDRESS ON 

"MEMORIES OF SHAWMUT AVENUE CHURCH 1 

BY 
MR. JOHN K. SIMPSON 



PREPARATORY SERVICE 

Friday, June 4, at 8 p. m. 



FOREWORD 

i^NE of the most interesting services held in 
^-^ connection with the First Church Anniver- 
sary was the "Preparatory Service," so called, on 
Friday evening, June 4, in the Chapel. The attend- 
ance, composed largely of former Shawmut Avenue 
members and their descendants, was large, and 
thoroughly enjoyed the address of Mr. Simpson, 
himself an ardent admirer of the old church and 
personally acquainted with almost the entire mem- 
bership of which he spoke. The address was inter- 
spersed frequently with his personal reminiscences 
of the staunch men and women who made up that 
membership and furnished the strong force of five 
hundred that joined the First Church in 1877, many 
of whom were its most active and efficient mem- 
bers. For this reason and as a matter of history, 
the address of Mr. Simpson is here printed. 

Address by Mr. John K. Simpson on "Memories 
of Shawmut Avenue Church" 

The Shawmut Avenue Baptist Church was the 
Thirteenth Baptist Church in Boston and bore that 
name in its beginning. The other twelve were: 
The First Baptist, 1665, Baldwin Place, 1742, 
Charles Street, 1807, Rowe Street, 1827, South Bos- 



10 PREPARATORY SERVICE 

ton, 1828, Independent (Colored), 1838, Harvard 
Street, March 1839, Merrimac Street, April 1839, 
Bowdoin Square, 1840, Tremont Street, 1843, 
Maverick, East Boston and the Twelfth (Colored). 
Dudley Street and Tremont Street, Roxbury, were 
not in Boston proper at this time. 

The first meeting house was Canton Street 
Chapel (still standing, 191 5) and the first pastor was 
Rev. Robert W. Cushman, D. D. The constitu- 
ent members were: 

John K. Deane and Sarah M. J., his wife, who 
came from Rowe Street. 

Dudley R. Palmer and Anna E., his wife, who 
came from Rowe Street. 

James W. Vose and Almira H., his wife, who 
came from Rowe Street. 

Martha M. Richardson, Louisa L. Brockway. 

Deacon Benjamin Smith and Mary O., his wife, 
from Bowdoin Square. 

John Crossley and Nancy, his wife, from Tremont 
Street, Roxbury. 

James Crossley (brother of John), from Tremont 
Street, Roxbury. 

Thomas Crossley (son of John), from Tremont 
Street, Roxbury. 

James C. Morton, from Tremont Street, Roxbury. 

Fernald D. Spokesfield, from Tremont Street, 
Roxbury. 

Isaac J. Soesman and Lois, his wife, from Dudley 
Street. 

Brice S. Evans, from Charles Street. 

Rev. Solomon Peck, D.D., from Charles Street. 




REV. ROLLIN H. NEALE, D.D. 



ADDRESS BY JOHN K. SIMPSON II 

Elisha Tower and Emeline, his wife, from First 
Baptist. 

Lydia W. Haley from First Baptist. 

Adoniram Judson Adams and Harriet L., his 
wife, from Baldwin Place. 

Martha Bolden and Ann Jane, her daughter, 
from Baldwin Place. 

Louisa P. Huggins, who came from Tremont 
Street. 

George W. Cutter and Mary D., his wife, from 
Bunker Hill Church. 

Ednah F. Marshall, from Harvard Street. 

These fifteen brethren and sixteen sisters took 
letters of dismission from the churches with which 
they were connected and on the third day of March 
1856 they united and organized as a church in the 
adoption of articles of faith and a covenant, and 
on the thirteenth day of the same month and year 
were publicly recognized and received by Council 
into the fellowship of the Baptist churches. On 
the same evening public services of recognition were 
held in the chapel. Rev. Baron Stow, D.D., 
offered the prayer of recognition and Rev. Rollin H. 
Neale, D.D., gave the right hand of fellowship. 
A sabbath school under the superintendency of 
Franklin W. Smith had already been established, 
May 6, 1855, with forty-four scholars and nine 
teachers, four weeks after the first service for reli- 
gious worship which was April 8, 1855. 

In April 1857, Mr. Philip Saffrey Evans of Brook- 
lyn, N. Y., then a student in Rochester Seminary, 
was invited to become the pastor, commencing his 



12 PREPARATORY SERVICE 

labors on the first sabbath in September following 
and being ordained Thursday, October i, 1857, 
after the approval of a council held September 
20 composed of delegates from the Baptist churches 
of Boston and vicinity. The ordination services 
were held in Williams Hall, corner of Dover and 
Washington Streets, to which location the church 
had removed September 6, 1857 an d which became 
its second meeting house. 

The winter of 1857-8 was a period of revival in 
which this church shared largely. Twenty-seven 
were added by baptism and twenty-six by letter 
during the year 1858, and, at its close, the member- 
ship was ninety-three. The pastorate of the Rev. 
Mr. Evans had continued until the fifth of Novem- 
ber of this same year, when he resigned his charge. 

At this time the growing interest of this church 
attracted the attention of its sister churches in the 
city; and after a series of meetings of delegates 
from these churches the following resolution was 
by them passed, on Monday evening, March 14, 

1859. 

11 Resolved, That this convention recommend to 
the members of the Thirteenth Church to proceed 
immediately to procure an eligible location for 
public worship, near the center of the Eleventh 
Ward ; and also to secure the services of an efficient 
pastor as soon as may be and that in their so doing 
we pledge the church our cordial sympathy and 
co-operation." 

A meeting of the church was held on the evening 
of the 1 6th of the same month and Rev. Joseph W. 



ADDRESS BY JOHN K. SIMPSON 1 3 

Parker, D.D., was unanimously invited to become 
their pastor, which he accepted on the 26th of June 
following. 

During the summer following, the edifice on the 
corner of Shawmut Avenue and Rutland Street 
was purchased and re-fitted at a cost of about 
$30,000 and the vestry was re-dedicated to Almighty 
God, Sabbath, August 14, 1859. The main audi- 
ence room was completed and occupied in Septem- 
ber following. 

This, which was the Third Meeting House occu- 
pied by the church, had been known as the "Free 
chapel on Shawmut Avenue" (Suffolk Street at the 
time of erection) and had been built in 1839 of 
"Roxbury pudding stone" quarried near the spot, 
and undressed granite trimmings. It had been 
built by the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches, on 
land given by the City of Boston according to the 
grant of 1806 "to the first religious society who 
should erect a church thereon." This Unitarian 
Society had previously worshipped in Canton Street 
Chapel and before that in an upper primary school 
room on Northampton Street, where it was originally 
gathered July 16, 1837. The pastors had been Rev. 
John T. Sargent, October 1837 to December, 1844; 
Rev. Joseph Harrington in 1845, and Rev. Samuel 
B. Cruft from January 1846 to the time of sale. 

The church at this time numbered ninety-two, 
the Sabbath School sixty-five, but during the year 
increased to three hundred. The name of the 
church was at this time changed to Shawmut 
Avenue Baptist Church. During the pastorate of 



14 PREPARATORY SERVICE 

Dr. Parker, which continued until December 20, 
1864, the additions to the church were one hundred 
and forty-two, being thirty-five by baptism and 
one hundred and seven by letters from other 
churches. 

In the spring of 1865 subscriptions were opened 
and work commenced of greatly enlarging and 
beautifying the church edifice. Rev. William 
Hague, D.D., had, on April 4, accepted the call of 
the church and had at once begun his labors without 
any formal services of installation. The church 
now numbered two hundred and forty-eight. 

During the remodelling, the church occupied the 
edifice of the Hedding Methodist Episcopal Church 
on Tremont Street. This church, which was built 
by the noted architect Hammett Billings, is con- 
sidered by some the most beautiful piece of church 
architecture in the city of Boston. Its lines are 
somewhat followed in the Baptist Church at Wollas- 
ton Heights. 

The Sabbath School and evening services were 
resumed in the completed vestry of the church in 
October 1865 and the main auditorium re-dedicated 
March 1, 1866. The pastor preached from Haggai 
11:9, and the other services were conducted by Rev. 
J. W. Parker, D.D., and Rev. P. S. Evans, both 
former Pastors, by Rev. Rollin H. Neale, D.D., 
Rev. Daniel C. Eddy, D.D., Rev. Warren Ran- 
dolph, D.D., Rev. Justin D. Fulton, Rev. O. T. 
Walker and Rev. L. A. Grimes, the audience filling 
the house to its utmost capacity. 

The sabbath following was a memorable day in 



ADDRESS BY JOHN K. SIMPSON 1 5 

the history of the church. At the close of the morn- 
ing service eight converts received the ordinance of 
baptism, Rev. Dr. Parker and Rev. Dr. Child each 
baptizing a daughter and at the close of the after- 
noon service the pastor gave the right hand of 
fellowship to forty persons added by baptism and 
by profession to their number. 

October 1866 it was proposed to inaugurate a 
mission school in connection with the church and 
Sabbath School. A room just beyond the old Rox- 
bury line on the corner of Washington and Williams 
Streets, was secured, refitted and furnished at a 
cost of six hundred dollars and was dedicated 
January 16, 1867, the pastor, Rev. Henry M. King, 
pastor of Dudley Street and Mr. Henry H. Kimball 
delivering interesting addresses, and this enterprise, 
begun by Charles B. Lane, Farley F. Conant and 
Charles R. Dane, known at first as the "Branch 
Chapel," later developed into the Ruggles Street 
Baptist Church. 

This period of the history of the Shawmut Avenue 
Baptist Church was marked as one of spiritual ac- 
tivity and most united and harmonious co-operation 
for the Redeemer's cause, as well beyond as in its 
own field of labor. 

A prominent feature of the church life in the 
early years was its Sunday evening prayer meetings 
always well attended and marked by deep spirit- 
uality. More prominent still was its Young Peo- 
ple's prayer meetings held on Monday evenings 
for many years before Christian Endeavor in its 
modern sense had been dreamed of. The first 



1 6 PREPARATORY SERVICE 

exhibition of lantern slides, almost, ever seen in 
Boston was that showing Palestine and Bible His- 
tory in a course of Sunday School lectures given 
by Charles W. Jenks, the slides belonging to Gov. 
George S. Briggs. 

The Sunday School concerts during the winter 
in the sixties were also a distinguishing factor in 
Sunday School work and such entertaining talkers 
to children as Cyrus Brewer, Rev. William Howe, 
Stephen G. Deblois, Hon. Joseph Story and others 
were often called into the field of service. The 
annual picnic of the Sunday School went for years 
to Walden Pond, Concord; a long string of omni- 
buses led by a portion of the Germania Band under 
brother W. C. Nichols. An organization called the 
Shawmut Avenue Literary Society flourished for 
several winters, and another of girls, called the 
Band of Earnest Workers, furnished many enter- 
tainments, fairs, dramatics, and musicals, while the 
visit of Mrs. Marilla B. Ingalls from Burmah in 
1869 and her exhibition of native costumes, cus- 
toms and domestic life with the use of Shawmut 
Avenue young people for lay figures all threw a 
flood of light and cheer into the missionary life of 
the church and was the real precursor of "The 
World in Boston" forty years later. 

Notable also was the course of Sunday evening 
sermons during Dr. Lorimer's pastorate at all of 
which the audience room was crowded almost to 
suffocation. 

In its wider range of activities the church fur- 
nished war-relief supplies in great haste after the 



ADDRESS BY JOHN K. SIMPSON 1 7 

battle of Bull Run, and much assistance to the 
Y. M. C. A. bazars of 1857 and 1871. A Shakes- 
pere Club was in existence for several years. 

In 1869, Dr. Hague went to Chicago leaving as 
his last message to the church in farewell words 
"If you don't take the West, the West will take 
you." 

Dr. George C. Lorimer came from Louisville 
early in 1870, with remarkable oratorical gifts 
derived from early connection with the stage, hav- 
ing been manager of a theatre in Dublin at 21, in 
association with his half brother, John H. Selwyn, 
who built Selwyn Theatre in Boston, and who was 
a frequent attendant at Dr. Lorimer's services. 
The son of this brother was the subject of Dr 
Lorimer's tender care until his early death, while 
Dr. Lorimer's son became the proprietor of The 
Saturday Evening Post. 

Dr. Lorimer's chief work was done in Tremont 
Temple, but in a course of Lowell Lectures which 
he was invited to give he chose the subject "The 
Science of Theology" which he spoke of in the 
closing sentence of the last as the "Queen of 
Sciences," and when he went to Chicago he paid 
the tribute of appreciation and affection to Shaw- 
mut Avenue, by calling her in public "The Queen 
of Churches." 

Dr. Way land Hoyt's pastorate closed in 1876, 
and May 24, 1877, the five hundred members of 
Shawmut Avenue Church were received into the 
membership of the First Church and Shawmut 
Avenue ceased to exist as a separate body. 



1 8 PREPARATORY SERVICE 

Now just a few words in regard to the civil and 
military achievements of many of the Shawmut 
Avenue members. 

In The Civil War 

William H. Capen and his wife, Eliza, came from 
Baltimore in 1857, and united with the Thirteenth 
Baptist Church. Their son Henry was First Lieu- 
tenant in the 44th Regiment Massachusetts Vol- 
unteers. Shephard S. Everett, son of Erastus D. 
Everett, enlisted in the 13th Regiment Massachu- 
setts Volunteers and left the service July, 1864. 
Manton Everett, brother of Shephard, was bap- 
tized and joined the church in January 1862, en- 
listed in Company K, 38th Regiment Massachusetts 
Volunteers, and was killed in battle at Bisland, 
La., in 1863. His body was brought home and 
buried from the Shawmut Avenue Church wrapped 
in his country's colors. James S. Ramsey, son of 
sister Janet Ramsey and brother of Mrs. Georgi- 
ana (Ramsey) Fulton, served in the 44th Regiment 
Massachusetts Volunteers. He returned from the 
war, and went to live in Dover, N. H., where he 
lives to-day. 

Major Henry H. Comey served for many years 
after the close of the war in the Boston Custom 
House and Capt. Chauncey C. Deane was a nephew 
of Deacon John K. Deane. Major Henry C. Dane, 
who married a daughter of Rev. Dr. Parker, was 
with Farragut as a signal officer in the main-top 
of the U. S. S. Richmond at Mobile Bay. Samuel 
Everett Pierce was chaplain of the 75th Regiment 



ADDRESS BY JOHN K. SIMPSON 1 9 

New York State Guards, called from his pastorate 
at East Gloucester, Mass., to leave his plough in 
the furrow and answer his country's call. Rev. 
Robert G. Seymour, D.D., first pastor of Branch 
Chapel and Ruggles Street Church, was chaplain 
in the New Orleans campaign, and Mrs. Emeline 
Horton was the widow of Rev. Mr. Horton, the 
victim of the New Orleans riots, incident to the 
occupation of the city by Gen. B. F. Butler. 

Major Julius C. Shailer served in all three 
branches of the service — Army, Navy and Marines, 
rising from a drummer boy to the command of a 
full New Jersey Regiment of 1600 men in the 
Spanish War besides making a three-year cruise as 
Lieut. U, S. M. C. in the U. S. S. St. Marys in the 
South Pacific. George A. Chipman was a private 
in an Ohio regiment and Major Edward J. Jones has 
a record which is told on a marble tablet in the 
First Baptist Church, and Private John Albert 
Dodge in Company A 39th Massachusetts, brother 
of the little Sunday school girl Alice F. Dodge, 
laid down his life in the trenches before Vicksburg 
under General Banks. Doctor Elisha M. White, 
superintendent of the Sabbath School 1880-82, was 
surgeon in 44th Massachusetts and Capt. Albert C. 
Pond belonged to the Cadet Regiment (Mass. 45th). 

The Building, etc. 

The period covered by the history of the Shaw- 
mut Avenue Church was the period of the making 
of the new South End, or the spreading of Boston 
Neck, and on the reclaimed marshes of Muddy 



20 PREPARATORY SERVICE 

River and South Bay. In the work of building a 
city as well as building a church of Christ the 
membership of Shawmut Avenue played no incon- 
siderable part. Whole blocks, indeed whole streets 
at the South End can be pointed out as the lasting 
monuments of these craftsmen. Caesar Augustus 
found Rome brick and left it marble. These men 
found the south part of the city of Boston waste- 
land and shanties, and left the most substantial 
residences to be found anywhere in the metropolis. 
Some of the names can be recorded here — Fernald 

D. Spokesfield, Gideon Currier, Charles H. Young, 
James Howe, William E. Gutterson, Francis F. 
Morton, Samuel Stillman Cudworth, and Charles 

E. Daniels were a few of them. 

John K. Deane was a merchant tailor, and so were 
Walter C. Brooks, Charles F. Griffin, and John W. 
Scott. Dudley R. Palmer and Farley F. Conant 
were importers of fruit. James W. Vose was a 
piano manufacturer and so were Albert W. Ladd 
and Ephraim Willard. Henry S. Harris, Brice S. 
Evans and James D. K. Willis were large operators 
in Boston real estate. Henry H. Kimball was an 
expert book man. 

The dry goods trade was represented by Edward 
W. Capen, Fredk. T. Hooper, John A. Ordway, 
William Fosdick, D wight Whelock, E. D. Everett, 
William G. Harris and George W. Wheaton; the 
carpet and furniture trade by the names of Charles 
B. Lane, the house of Chipmans, by I. W. Chick, 
and by Barnabas Eldridge; the stove and furnace 
business by B. W. Dunklee, Moses W. Pond and 



ADDRESS BY JOHN K. SIMPSON 21 

John Spence & Son. Chas. R. Dane and Franklin 
W. Smith were hardware dealers ; Charles L. Gibson 
and James W. Converse, shoe and leather mer- 
chants. Alfred S. Wood worth was a tea importer; 
while Albert F. Chandler and Amos D. Albee were 
stockbrokers. Lucius A. Elliott and Charles W. 
Jenks dealt in engravings and choice works of art. 
Samuel N. Brown was the agent of the Fairbanks 
Scale Company. Lansing Millis and Paul K. Ran- 
dall were, respectively, agents of the Vermont 
Central, and Michigan Southern Railroads. 

Among the professions a long list of able teachers 
and loving instructors might be made, but among 
those best known and most highly revered are the 
following: Ann Jane Bolden, Ellen E. Leach, Lucy 
L. Burgess, Caroline K. Nickerson, Sarah Flora 
Chandler, Amelia F. Hinckley and Susan S. Foster. 

Not to overlook the liberal professions we beg to 
add Dr. William Bailey, Dr. Elisha W. Aiken, Dr. 
J. W. Ball, Dr. D. A. Johnson, Dr. C. B. Porter; 
Lawyers Daniel C. Luiscott, Thomas J. Emery, 
James Munroe Olmstead, Heman W. Chaplin; and 
Engineer Robert A. Shailer of East Boston Tunnel 
fame. 



REPORT OF THE 

TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH 

ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 

OF THE 

First Baptist Church of Boston 
June 5 to 7, 1915 



Saturday, June $,8 p.m. 

Rev. Austen K. de Blois presided at the open- 
ing session at 8 o'clock on the evening of Saturday, 
June 5. 

The devotional exercises were conducted by Dean 
Nathan R. Wood, of the Gordon Bible Institute, 
and were followed by an address of welcome by 
Mr. Rest F. Curtis, Chairman of the General 
Committee, as follows: 

Address of Welcome 

Fellow representatives of the Boston division of 
the most catholic church in America, I bid you 
welcome. Perhaps I will illustrate my first sen- 
tence by saying "one of the most catholic churches 
in America.' ' Far be it from me to attempt in 
these few moments to characterize our faith — your 
faith and mine. We are not Catholics, but in the 
deepest and truest sense of the word, if we are true 
to our faith, we are catholic. I base this statement 
on two facts: First, although our name has led 
many people to think otherwise, the chief underlying 



24 ADDRESS OF WELCOME 

principle of our faith is the right of each individual 
to interpret and act upon the Word of God as he 
sees it, and not another; and second, a natural 
consequence of the first, that of all the Christian 
bodies, ours has been the farthest removed from any 
suspicion of persecuting their neighbors. It is 
then into an atmosphere of happy devotion, of 
loving service, and of broadest sympathy, that we 
welcome you this evening. 

The history of our church cannot be dissociated 
from the history of our city. Indeed at certain 
times it was a strong factor in that history. It is 
well told in the volume written by one of our honored 
ex-pastors, Dr. Wood, and will well repay your 
reading. From the strenuous pioneer days of the 
Indian wars — from the trying and most fruitful 
days of the Revolutionary War, from the sad yet 
saving days of our Civil War, in all of which mem- 
bers of this church have borne a noble part, into 
the fierce days of this most gigantic and apparently 
needless war, come the strong, tender, healing 
teachings of the Prince of Peace which it is our 
blessed privilege and duty, as it was theirs, to spread 
abroad, and to impress. 

It has been my pleasant fortune to act as the 
nominal head of an interesting and interested com- 
mittee, all the members of which have been actuated 
by a real desire to render the exercises of these com- 
ing days both enjoyable and profitable to you. It 
used to be said that we have five senses. To all 
of these they have been glad to try to minister. 
You shall see what you shall see. These flowers 



REST F. CURTIS 2$ 

are for you. Our own church building is worth 
seeing, both inside and out, and is always at your 
service, and the adjoining vestry contains many 
relics and other articles of interest which have 
never been seen together before and never will 
again. As to hearing, there is not one of my suc- 
cessors, up to Monday night, that it will not be a 
pleasure and a profit for you to hear, not forgetting 
"All Creation," which our organist, Mr. Comey, 
and our choir will offer you tomorrow afternoon. 
If you desire to smell, as I said, the flowers are 
yours. As to taste, if the programme, which our 
honored pastor has arranged with infinite care and 
skill, and the banquet of Monday evening, are not 
to your taste, so much the worse for your taste. 
And, lastly, touch. Scientists tell us that all the 
other senses are only variations of the sense of 
touch. If so, they are all touched upon in the fact 
that this evening is an effort on our part to get in 
touch with you, our fellow-churches, and to get 
you in touch with us. We want you all, then, 
both now and in the coming days, to help us develop 
and foster that highest of all senses, our spiritual 
sense which is, after all, our real bond in common. 

I have said that we bid you welcome, and we do 
so with our whole hearts. We gladly assume the 
r61e of your eldest brother and rejoice to lead you all 
into a better realization of the heritage of social, 
political, and religious advantages to which the 
untiring and often heroic labors of our church fore- 
fathers have entitled us. May it be ours to assist, 
in some sense, to enkindle similar feelings of grati- 



26 RESPONSE 

tude and respect in our spiritual descendants at the 
five hundredth anniversary of our beloved church. 



RESPONSE BY MR. GEORGE E. BRIGGS 

As I have pondered upon the striking history of 
this notable First Church, I have experienced feel- 
ings akin to the sensation which was mine as I 
climbed down into the Mamertine Prison in Rome 
and looked upon the spot where tradition, at least, 
tells us Paul was imprisoned. At that time, all 
that I knew of the Christian faith surged through 
my brain. The marvellous growth of Christianity 
throughout the world with its uplifting and re- 
deeming influence, the brilliant conquests for Christ 
in heathen lands, the dominating Christian spirit 
ever directing and moulding affairs in the great 
Christian nations of the earth all attest to the 
fidelity of those early disciples who by the grace 
of God were steadfast to the faith as revealed to 
them by Jesus Christ. 

To review the history of the period during the 
life of this ancient church is to write a full and com- 
plete history of the great Baptist denomination. 
Those early settlers in 1665 who established this 
church witnessed virtually the beginning of our 
denomination as a sect of believers using for the 
first time the distinctive name of Baptists. It was 
only in 1640 that the English Anabaptists first 
introduced immersion as the fitting act of Baptists 
according to the scriptures. 

All of the strength of our positions to-day can be 



GEORGE E. BRIGGS 27 

traced back to those early days of rigorous living 
when this church was founded. Two hundred and 
fifty years of progress from a small, uninfluential, 
struggling group of fearless believers to a powerful 
denomination of six millions in this country to-day 
indicates in itself that the foundations were laid 
firm and true according to God's word. We do 
not pretend to trace back our historic continuity to 
the Apostle Peter, but we do claim the right to be 
counted among that assembly of those in all the 
ages who truly love God and keep the command- 
ments of Christ. 

We, the Baptists of Greater Boston, feel keenly 
the high honor that is ours in being heirs of the 
sacrifices and devotion of those faithful men and 
women in whose honor we meet to-day. We enter 
into your day of rejoicing with a consciousness that 
our responsibility is a heavy one if we are to con- 
tinue the illustrious history of the Baptists of this 
region. We have seen the gradual growth of small 
weak churches into churches of great power and 
influence. We have seen great and powerful 
churches lose their community influence as neigh- 
borhood conditions changed from residential to 
commercial occupation. The net result, however, 
has been a distinct gain. To-day, without any 
doubt whatever, our Baptist churches constitute 
the strongest denomination in Greater Boston. 
There is never a convention of any importance but 
Baptists are in the forefront as leaders. The most 
effective city mission work is carried on by our own 
Boston Baptist City Mission Society. Our Bap- 



28 RESPONSE 

tist Social Union stands unique, not only here, but 
in the country at large, as the most vigorous as 
well as the largest organization of its kind. Our 
Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society, as Dr. 
Waterbury will tell you, is a model for other similar 
societies, thoroughly equipped for doing effective, 
constructive work. It has had a noble history. 

There is no city in the country that more quickly 
responds to great spiritual gatherings than Boston, 
and the secret in each case is the livelier sense of 
responsibility among Baptists than obtains in 
other denominations. The United Society of 
Christian Endeavor in 1895 had the greatest 
convention of its history in this city. Chapman 
and Alexander have never duplicated the awakening 
which was witnessed in Boston during their visit in 
1909. Our Baptist laymen constitute the very 
backbone of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tions the whole state over. Baptists have had a 
peculiar claim on the affections of our foreign-born 
friends who to-day represent a large part of our 
population because of the efforts to win their con- 
fidence and respect through the unique Ford Hall 
meetings. Our preparedness for service is largely 
due, I contend, to the historical background of the 
last two hundred and fifty years, for which we are 
grateful to God. 

Boston has always had a peculiar charm for cler- 
gymen and especially those of our own faith. If 
they are drawn away to other fields they invariably 
find that their hearts have been left behind. Bos- 
ton Baptists have created an atmosphere of their 



GEORGE E. BRIGGS 29 

own. You will find it nowhere else in the land. 
New York has none of it. Chicago has but little 
of it. Again and again as I have traveled about 
this country I have listened to men speak of Boston 
with strange feelings of affection and loyalty, as 
though Boston was the Mecca of American Bap- 
tists. They are not far wrong, after all, if history 
has any claim on our hearts. 

It was here in this First Baptist Church that the 
pioneer Baptist Missionary Society was formed in 
1802. From this Society all our home and foreign 
societies of the denomination have grown. This 
church had also her part in the publication of the 
original Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Magazine, 
the first issue of which appeared in 1803. It is also 
interesting to note that a deacon of this church was 
the publisher of this paper. In this magazine there 
appeared from time to time letters from William 
Carey and other missionaries. It became and has 
been the chief instrument in fostering the rising 
enthusiasm for missions among American Baptists. 
We now recognize this magazine under the title of 
Missions, although some of us would have liked to 
have continued the former time-honored name. 

Let your minds dwell for a moment on what has 
transpired since that day in missionary endeavor. 
All honor to those few heroic souls who perceived 
the Gospel as a whole and not a message localized 
and abbreviated. Our great national foreign mis- 
sion society was formed in 18 13 and was one great 
society until in 1845 when on the question of 
slavery the society split and the Southern Baptist 



30 RESPONSE 

Convention was formed at Augusta, Ga. During all 
these long years the Baptists of Boston and New 
England have been and are to-day the chief sup- 
porters of our great home and foreign societies, not 
only in the arduous work of administration, but 
also in the generous gifts of money. 

We, the churches of Greater Boston, salute you 
on this memorable occasion. May God richly 
bless the immediate and future work of this historic 
church, under the guidance of your beloved pastor, 
Dr. de Blois. May the coming days be days of 
fruitfulness and days of sweet, gracious service for 
the Master. 



ADDRESS ON THE HISTORY OF THE 
TABERNACLE CHURCH (OLD SECOND) 

By Mr. A. W. Baker, Superintendent of the 
Sunday School 

It is a great privilege to me to represent the Sec- 
ond Church, which came out of the First Church 
many years ago. You remember it was because of 
the preaching of the Reverend Jeremiah Condy 
that the Second Church was begun. Certain repre- 
sentative brethren began to doubt whether their 
pastor was really getting at the root of the matter, 
and they wrote him a latter about it. He did not 
answer it, and they formed themselves into a little 
organization and got themselves a little residence 
down on Sheaf Street. 

In 1790, Dr. Baldwin was called to the pastorate, 



TABERNACLE CHURCH 3 1 

and labored with them until 1825. I n 1803 they 
had a revival in Boston. One hundred and thirty- 
five members were added to the First Church, and 
two hundred and twelve to the Second Church. 
At Dr. Baldwin's death in 1825, Dr. Knowles was 
called as pastor, and labored until 1832, when he 
resigned and went to Newton. Then they went 
up into New Hampshire and decided that they 
would call Mr. Stowe of Portsmouth. The Ports- 
mouth people protested. They said, "We need a 
pastor in this field, but we are poor and we cannot 
afford a capable man." So the brethren of the 
Second Church came back and raised $1,000 which 
they gave to the Portsmouth congregation, and 
they called Mr. Stowe. He remained with them 
until they moved to Warren Street. Then Dr. 
Pentecost followed Dr. Eddy, and Dr. Giffin fol- 
lowed Dr. Pentecost. In less than three years 
three hundred members were taken into the church 
and $18,000 was raised in church revenues. Dr. 
Johnson's pastorate also came within this period. 

Now in regard to the Bowdoin Square church: 
In 1839 the church building was filled to overflowing. 
They had to build a new church to accommodate 
the people. So they bought the Bowdoin Square 
location for $24,000, and built a $70,000 church on 
it. Mr. Asa Wilbur put something like $30,000 
into the project at that time. 

When the church was completed, they began to 
look about for a congregation. Twenty-one mem- 
bers came from the First Church and sixty-six from 
the Second Church, and they formed the organiza- 



32 TABERNACLE CHURCH 

tion known as the Bowdoin Square Church. They 
called Dr. Welch of Albany, but he declined. Then 
they called Dr. Cushing of Philadelphia, and on 
June 5, 1841, he accepted the call. After him fol- 
lowed various other men with more or less success. 
Dr. Murdoch came, and then O. T. Walker (known 
as "Old Testament Walker"), Mr. Demaritt, Dr. 
Kelly, and Dr. Heath, our present pastor. 

On account of the flood of foreign immigration 
into the West End, we had to make some change in 
our church affairs. Two years ago, on the twelfth 
of January, the two churches were consolidated, and 
since that time we have enjoyed our mutual fellow- 
ship. The work has gone on well. Three hundred 
people have been taken into the church. There are 
now some twenty-five waiting for baptism. 

And so I bring the greetings, love and good will of 
us all to you, and I trust that the blessing of God 
may rest on the First Church in all the future years. 



ADDRESS ON THE NORTHERN BAPTIST 
EDUCATION SOCIETY 

President F. L. Anderson, D.D. 

The Northern Baptist Education Society presents 
its heartiest congratulations to the First Baptist 
Church, to the pastor, and to you. May your 
work prosper through all the years. 

At a meeting of the Warren Association in 1791, 
Dr. Stillman, pastor of this church, held in his hand 
a plan for an educational fund. The plan was 



EDUCATION SOCIETY 33 

signed A. B. Nobody knows who A. B. was; but 
the fund was for the purpose of aiding young men 
intending to prepare for the ministry to secure a 
college education. This plan was favorably re- 
ceived, and in 1792 in a meeting at Harvard, Mass., 
twelve trustees were appointed, of whom Dr. 
Stillman was one. These trustees met for the first 
time in Boston in 1793. Some people think that 
the movement was fathered principally by Rhode 
Island churches. But this church belonged in 
those days to the Warren Association, and there 
were only two Rhode Island churches which at that 
time belonged to it. All the trustees of the educa- 
tion fund, also, were Massachusetts men. How- 
ever, the fund did not grow very fast, and in 18 14, 
for various reasons, the Massachusetts Baptist 
Education Society was formed under the presi- 
dency of Daniel Sharpe, and took over the records 
and funds of the previous society. While only 
about half the age of this church, we are the first 
of all the societies founded under its auspices. This 
Massachusetts Baptist Education Society's greatest 
work was the presentation of the Newton Theologi- 
cal Institution to the Baptists of Massachusetts 
in 1825. 

In 1830 the name of the society was changed to 
that which it bears at present, and we took in not 
only Massachusetts, but Vermont and New Hamp- 
shire. Our work has been the same during all 
these years. Some people think that because we 
are an education society we have something to do 
with instructing young men. That is a great mis- 



34 NORTHERN BAPTIST 

take. Our work has been the gathering of funds to 
support young men while they were getting an 
education in academies, colleges, or seminaries. In 
some way the Lord in his wisdom has elected to 
choose the poor in this world's goods to be rich in 
faith and to go into the Christian ministry. Con- 
sequently we have had to help almost all of the 
young men who come to Newton Theological 
Seminary. Once in a while a bird who is able to 
support himself alights on the perch at Newton, but 
he is a very rare bird. 

And we ought to support these men. They give 
up the chance of a lucrative profession or business 
in order that they may devote themselves to the 
Christian ministry. The salary of a Baptist min- 
ister is no more than that of a good mechanic, and 
many do not get any more than a hod-carrier. 
They are facing a life work in which they are bound 
to be poor ; and more than that, whereas lawyers and 
physicians find the years between fifty and sixty- 
five the most productive of their lives, the minister 
is generally "shunted" at fifty. Consequently it 
seems to me that it is only right for us to support 
ministerial students during their seminary course 
at least. 

Now one of the first things our denomination in 
Massachusetts did was to turn its attention to the 
matter of ministerial education. Without ministers 
we cannot continue the church nor send out mission- 
aries to the West and the other parts of the earth. 
If it was necessary to educate our ministers in the 
early days, how much more necessary is it that we 



EDUCATION SOCIETY 35 

should send out educated men now! It needs a 
highly educated man to see his way through the 
tangled maze of modern life. 

We have had to contend with the thought that 
there is something antagonistic between education 
and true religion. There is nothing in that idea, 
or, rather, there is just enough of a shadow of truth 
in it to make it a danger to our society. Vital 
piety is the foundation of true Christianity, and all 
the education in the world cannot make a minister 
unless God has put His spirit in his heart first of all. 
At Newton and in our Education Society we believe 
just as firmly as our fathers did that men must be 
called by God to His ministry. We also acknowledge 
that God sometimes does call men like Dwight L. 
Moody, who had no great amount of education, to 
do a large work and accomplish great things for 
Him. But it is just such men as Mr. Moody who 
are sorry that they did not have the larger view of 
life that schools and study give. You will remem- 
ber that Moody established Northfield. 

Is there really any contradiction between learning 
and true heart religion? The greatest Christian of 
the first century was Paul, the best educated man 
among the apostles. There was Augustine, the 
next great man, a professor of rhetoric and philos- 
ophy. Coming down to the time of the Reforma- 
tion, Martin Luther was a professor of philosophy 
and theology in the University of Wittenberg. 
John Calvin had a broad education at the great 
French universities, had attended the most re- 
nowned law schools, and sometimes lectured in his 



36 MASSACHUSETTS BAPTIST 

teacher's place. He was a professor of theology, as 
were many others of the most noted men. Hub- 
maier, the great Baptist leader of the Reformation 
period, was professor of theology of the University 
of Ingoldstadt, and court preacher at the cathedral 
of Regensburg. John Knox was a teacher in the 
University of St. Andrews. The Wesleys were 
both Oxford men. It is out of the schools and 
universities that the important movements and 
great leaders of the Christian faith have come. It 
seems to be a necessity that a spiritual leader of the 
highest type should see clearly the great problems 
and questions of his time and, led by the spirit of 
Christ, should see God behind them all. 



ADDRESS OF REV. WILLARD E. WATER- 
BURY, AS REPRESENTING THE 
MASSACHUSETTS BAPTIST 
MISSIONARY SOCIETY 

When the First Baptist Church of Boston had 
reached the adolescent age of one hundred and 
thirty-seven years, there was formed within the 
hospitable walls of its meeting house the first 
Baptist missionary society on the American con- 
tinent. That was one hundred and thirteen 
years ago. Many and notable have been the 
changes since then, in city, commonwealth and 
denomination. Boston had a population of less 
than 25,000. It is now twenty-seven times larger. 
The population of the entire state was 422,845, 



MISSIONARY SOCIETY 37 

or 247,000 less than the present population of 
Boston. There were in the state ioo Baptist 
churches and 6,000 members. We now have 
349 churches and 80,672 members. The state 
has increased somewhat less than eightfold; the 
denomination thirteenfold. 

The formation of the Massachusetts Baptist 
Missionary Society grew out of the wide-spread 
revival interest which marked the closing part 
of the eighteenth century. The churches had not 
only received large accessions in numbers, but 
a mighty Divine impulse had been experienced 
along the lines of the Great Commission. Indi- 
vidual pastors had been given leave of absence 
from their churches and had gone out into the 
newer regions lying to the west of Massachusetts. 
Their labors were so fruitful that when they 
returned the needs and opportunities impressed 
the hearts of others. 

This missionary society was in reality born in 
the heart of the brilliant and beloved Dr. Stillman, 
pastor of the First Baptist Church in Boston. 

Listen to this quaint and significant record of 
the church, March 29, 1802: 

"The minister read to ye Church proposals for a Baptist 
Missionary Society. Upon which they voted, that ye 
minister and deacons be a committee to confer with a 
committee to be chosen by Mr. Baldwin's church, upon 
this business, and to report at the next church meeting." 

"Wednesday the 28 the chh was stopped after lecture, 
and ye missionary business reconsidered. The minister 
informed ye church that ye Second Baptist Church 



38 MASSACHUSETTS BAPTIST 

were very anxious to engage in ye business as soon as 
possible; and as many ministers wo d be together at ye 
Gen 1 election, it was agreed that we wo d proceed to 
send out circular letters immediately." 

The circular letter was sent to the churches of 
Massachusetts on April 29, 1802, in which with 
the proposal for a missionary society there was 
incorporated the object and a provisional constitu- 
tion. 

"The object of this Society shall be, to furnish oc- 
casional preaching, and to promote the knowledge of 
evangelic truth in the new settlements within these 
United States : or farther, if circumstances should render 
it proper." 

There was made also this provision : 

"The Society shall hold their first meeting, for the 
choice of officers, at the First Baptist Meeting House in 
Boston on the last Wednesday of May next at 9 o'clock 
A. M. and in every year thereafter, at the same time 
and place, unless otherwise ordered by the Society or 
Trustees." 

The Society thus formed enjoyed the hospitality 
of the First Baptist Church fourteen times during 
the first thirty- three years; and it is to be our 
pleasure to meet for our next anniversary within 
the walls of the present meeting house. 

In looking forward to the gathering of this 
evening hour I had occasion to re- visit the North 
End of Boston where once stood the meeting 
house in which our missionary society was formed. 
All along Salem Street I found a mass of humanity, 



MISSIONARY SOCIETY 39 

polyglot population, a babel of voices, vendors of 
wares and foodstuffs. The men were standing 
in groups, and I am sure it was not of my imagina- 
tion that I saw on their faces looks of anxious 
seriousness. Though I could not understand their 
words, I was confident they were discussing the 
European crisis. The women were seated on 
doorsteps and standing in doorways, glibly engaged 
in conversation; and the children — some of them 
hardly old enough to be out of their mothers' 
arms — were running about on the sidewalks and 
streets amid pedlars, hucksters and bystanders. 

I addressed a question to a twelve-year-old lad. 
He attached himself to me and offered his services 
as a guide to the Paul Revere House and the North 
Church. I assured him that I had visited these 
places, and I then offered to be his guide to some 
of the places of note with whose history I judged 
he was not familiar. We passed along Salem 
Street and Baldwin Place. I pointed out the 
synagogue at the end of a cul-de-sac, and told him 
that was once a Baptist meeting house and that 
Dr. Baldwin was the pastor. We paused at the 
corner of Salem and Stillman Streets where a 
dingy brick block juts out to the sidewalk, taking 
up every available inch of space. I informed him 
that here was once a spacious lawn with shade 
trees, a well and a pump, and that about one 
hundred feet back from the street stood the meeting 
house of the First Baptist Church, in which was 
formed the first Baptist missionary society in this 
country. Also that the tide water came within 



40 MASSACHUSETTS BAPTIST 

a stone's throw of the church; it is now six blocks 
away. We visited the adjoining streets, and I 
asked him to designate the nationality of the 
groups of children here and there. Somewhat 
contemptuously he pointed out some as Jews, 
others as Poles, others Sicillians, and so on through 
the list of nationalities. I said to him "Of all 
the nationalities in this part of the city, next 
to the Italians, which do you like best?" He 
promptly replied "American." 

"But," I said, " I mean of those other than Ameri- 
can. 

"None of them!" was his very emphatic answer. 
Here was revealed the racial antagonism among 
our New Americans which it is the purpose of all 
true Americans to eradicate. 

During the interview I asked the lad what he 
expected to do after graduating from the grammar 
school. He very promptly told me that he should 
take a high school course. "And after that, 
what?" "College," was his reply. "What col- 
lege?" I asked. "Harvard," he answered. "But 
how about money?" "My mother will back me 
up." And later I passed the little store conducted 
by the mother of the lad. The family name of 
the boy is Cogliano: distinctly Italian. His given 
name, "Willie," is decidedly American. This com- 
bination is suggestive of our hyphenated Ameri- 
canism, though given in the reverse. 

During our interview I was trying to imagine 
Dr. Stillman again walking along those streets, 
perhaps hearing those strange voices and beholding 



MISSIONARY SOCIETY 4 1 

the sight of a Europeanized American city. But 
in all, I was sure that as a missionary society we 
have been carrying out the purpose of the founders. 

In the object of the society mention was made 
of promoting "the knowledge of evangelic truth in 
the new settlements within these United States, 
or further if circumstances should render it proper." 
But the people of the faraway have come to us and 
it is ours to give them the message of Gospel truth. 

The Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society, 
which I have the honor to represent, has for these 
one hundred and thirteen years been carrying on an 
ever increasingly diversified work: pioneering as 
far West as the Mississippi ; as far North as Mont- 
real; as far South as the West Indies — and I have 
even found the record of one thousand dollars 
contributed for Dr. Judson's work in publishing 
the Bible in Burmese. 

But in all these recent decades the work has 
been confined to Massachusetts. In this state, 
which is now second in its proportion of foreign 
population, only 32.8 per cent are native born 
of native parents. The Missionary Society formed 
in the First Baptist Church disbursed during the 
first one hundred years of its history $823,959; 
$151,000 of this amount was given for building 
purposes. The disbursements for the years since 
the Society celebrated its centenary, thirteen 
years ago, have been $498,958. The Society is 
now assisting ninety churches in the payment 
of the pastors' salaries. These are old rural 
churches, new suburban churches and a few 



42 MASSACHUSETTS BAPTIST 

down-town churches. In the employ of the Society 
are forty men and women carrying the Gospel 
message to their own people in ten distinct lan- 
guages. It is thus but proper that the Society 
should at least briefly give ah account of itself 
on this notable occasion — the two hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary of the founding of this noble 
church. 

With this report I bring the greetings of the 
old Missionary Society to the First Baptist Church 
of Boston, whose house of worship was the birth- 
place of the first Baptist missionary organization 
in America; whose pastor, the peerless preacher, 
Dr. Samuel Stillman, was the first chairman of 
the Board of Trustees; whose fostering care made 
possible the sturdy growth of the Missionary 
Society in its younger years: and whose generous 
support has so largely aided the Society in its 
service to the Kingdom in all succeeding decades. 

So amid all the greetings and congratulations 
of this great celebration, allow the pioneer mission- 
ary society of our denomination to tender its 
tribute of esteem, gratitude and affection. 



NEWTON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION 43 

ADDRESS ON THE NEWTON THEOLOGICAL 
INSTITUTION 

Rev. Charles H. Watson, D.D., President of 
the Board of Trustees 

My subject takes me back only ninety of the 
two hundred and fifty years. It was, then, in 
1825 that the relationship between the First Church 
and the Newton Theological Institution began. 
Naturally do these celebrations provoke us to make 
comparisons. During the earlier period, when for 
Baptist ministers theological instruction was a 
prize to be seized because appreciated, it would be 
natural that the mother church and the new insti- 
tution for training our ministry should come into 
a close relationship. 

It was in the vestry of the old second meeting 
house in Salem Street that an influential company 
of ministers and laymen assembled to consider the 
establishment of a theological institution. The 
fortunate pastorship of Francis Way land at this 
time was doubtless one of those leaderships that 
grip the deeper and larger life of the churches, and 
knit them to movements that are imperative, and 
that are destined to be great. 

We may easily imagine the providential presence 
of Pastor Wayland in these important conferences 
that resulted in Newton's mighty race of ninety 
years. Very soon Wayland himself was to begin 
his own great career as president of Brown Univer- 
sity. With such a mind and spirit as his, fired 



44 NEWTON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION 

with the purpose of founding a training school for 
ministers, we may be sure that many in the church 
would be warmed into a friendly interest. Yet 
in that day, among Baptists, in the business of 
promoting an educated ministry, the best that 
could be hoped for was sufficient conviction and 
effort to make a good beginning. 

It was a beginning — nothing more. The pre- 
vailing sentiment then among Baptists as a people 
was that God made his own ministers, and that 
schools might only interfere and hinder Him in 
the process. Ministers must be miracles, and the 
process of making them must be miraculous! In 
this day of universal insistence upon training for 
every kind of high service, we can with difficulty 
imagine the travail and pain that must have accom- 
panied the bringing forth of the Newton institu- 
tion. There was plenty of suspicion, much proph- 
ecy of evil, abundant opposition, not a little ridi- 
cule. Yet the enlightened leaders, like Wayland 
and the men associated with him, knew history and 
counted upon opposition, and discounted it before- 
hand. They knew what wise and tactful pressure 
would be necessary to gain a sure foothold for the 
institution. And they knew, also, that an intelli- 
gent faith must have a courage at least equal to 
that which an inspired ignorance supplied. It 
would be a fanciful claim to say that there was 
anything like unanimity even in the old mother 
church on this new heresy of founding a minister- 
factory. Unanimity is not an outstanding Baptist 
virtue — individuality is our specialty. 



NEWTON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION 45 

But this can be said: From the beginning until 
now the old church has consistently followed her 
true leadership, and never wavered in her espousal 
of intelligence, and her insistence upon a leader- 
ship highly trained. All of her pastors have been 
eminent as teaching preachers, and as men of full 
training and distinction of mentality. And all of 
them since the institution was founded have been 
members of our board. 

Something was favorable at the beginning as 
well as unfavorable. It was the day of simpler 
things in spiritual life and enterprise. There was 
much devoutness and prayerful dependence upon 
God ; a willing yielding to the sense of responsibility 
for things that ought to be done. Happy were 
the ministers who could count upon certain devout 
laymen who were full of the Holy Ghost and of 
prayer and who reached out in world evangeliza- 
tion as well as in training and preparing the messen- 
gers. Happy were the laymen who in their great 
enterprises could follow such wise and sure-footed 
leaders as Thomas Baldwin, Francis Wayland, 
Daniel Sharpe, Baron Stow, and the others of that 
giant race. 

We must remember that our period of rush and 
scramble, of multiplying material interests, of 
greed for luxury and of passion for pleasure, had 
not arrived, and that still the worthy interests were 
claiming the leisure and the surplus of conse- 
crated men. In such a period, the relations of the 
church to Newton easily could be beautiful. They 
explain for us the growth of the institution, the 



46 NEWTON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION 

early period of solid achievement, and the ultimate 
character that has been conceded to the institution 
the world around. 

The work of the fathers was solidly to lay founda- 
tions. Ours is as solidly to perpetuate and strength- 
en the structure of ministerial training. Perhaps 
in a time that puts the emphasis upon the superficial 
and the immediate, this old church will find her- 
self in a greater struggle than that which engaged 
the fathers long ago. It would be a curious thing 
if, ninety years after this church led in founding 
the first school for training, and for such reasons as 
her leaders were prepared to give and insist upon, 
she should have to fight the same battle over again. 
It is really the struggle for fundamental survival; 
to make substantial growth and character more 
attractive than emotionalism and superficial activ- 
ity; and to disillusion the churches from a success 
that is too easily won, and as easily lost. Growth 
is gradual. It comes by leading and by following. 
It builds a strong body with surplus to throw into 
greater movements in the Kingdom. Thus church 
and school by wide distribution of their strength 
come into a greater strength, and a closer unity. 
The churches and schools are our great power- 
houses, and we cannot too strongly insist that they 
are one ; and should grow together. 



PRAYER OF INVOCATION 47 

Sunday, June 6 at 10.30 a.m. 

PRAYER OF INVOCATION 

Rev. Philip A. Nordell, D.D. 

O Thou Infinite Spirit, we beseech Thee make us 
conscious this morning of Thy Presence in all our 
hearts. We cannot mount up into the amplitudes 
of Thy being, and yet we rejoice to know that Thou 
dost take up Thine habitation in every humble 
and contrite heart. To all the generations, past, 
present, and to come, Thou hast revealed Thyself, 
and we have rejoiced in Thy Presence and Thy 
guidance. We thank Thee for every revelation 
Thou hast made of Thyself, but especially for Thy 
revelation of Thyself in Jesus Christ, our Saviour 
and our Lord. We thank Thee not only for His 
words, but also we thank Thee for His life, His 
sufferings, His death and His ascension into glory. 
We thank Thee for the Church established through 
Him on earth, and we thank Thee for this church 
and all its glorious history founded in ancient 
years. We thank Thee for the strong men who 
have borne the truth on from age to age. We 
thank Thee that their memory is still fragrant to 
us, and we beseech Thee that the strength of the 
fathers may be given to the children and that Thy 
benediction may rest on this church in the future 
and make it even more glorious than in the past. 
We beseech Thee that upon this church may rest 
the benediction of the Father, the Son, and the 



48 PRAYER OF COMMEMORATION 

Holy Spirit. Grant that in the future, as in past 
years, a strong and benign influence may go forth 
from it into this community, this commonwealth, 
and so throughout the whole world. And we pray 
that Thou wilt hasten the time when the Kingdom 
of God shall reach throughout the world and the 
spirit of Christianity shall reign supreme in our 
hearts. We ask in His name. Amen. 



PRAYER OF COMMEMORATION 

Rev. Charles H. Spalding, D.D. 

O Thou God of our fathers, Thou God and 
Father of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, 
into Thy presence we come now with glad and 
grateful hearts for this commemorative moment. 
We praise Thee, O God, that Thou hast established 
Thy church upon this earth, and that Thou didst 
plant this vine in the early days of the history of 
this land and of this city. We thank Thee, O God, 
that this vine has spread out its branches, and 
climbed over walls and that the fruit of it is now 
shaking like Lebanon. Truly it was as the planting 
of a handful of corn upon the top of the mountains, 
and great and glorious has been its fruitage. From 
generation to generation, O Lord, Thy name has 
been honored at this altar, and there are a cloud 
of witnesses about us, and that cloud is full of 
faces and voices — faces we shall see no more, and 
voices we shall hear no more. But we do thank 
Thee for the everlasting song and the everlasting 



PRAYER OF COMMEMORATION 49 

glory. We cannot praise Thee enough, Heavenly- 
Father, for the hour which now strikes upon our 
ears. We think of the faithful men and women 
who have nurtured their faith at this altar, and 
who have been instrumental in the founding and 
the establishing of civic righteousness, of social 
welfare in the community, of large commercial 
interests, and in the progress of Christianity all 
over the wide world. Our Father in Heaven, we 
pray that Thou wilt open our eyes to see wonderful 
things and open our lips to speak the things we 
see, and open our hearts to love the things we 
speak. Consecrated has been the fellowship of the 
church with Thee and with generations gone. 
Names written here and on high unite, we believe, 
in the fellowship of this great hour, and we praise 
Thee for them all. We ask, Heavenly Father, 
that Thou wilt bless all the interests of this great 
occasion. Remember and strengthen the pastor 
of this church as he reviews to-day the great names 
eminent on the roll of the Christian ministry. 
Remember the officers of the church who stand 
behind him to-day, to follow in the footsteps of those 
honored men and women who are gone. Remem- 
ber, we pray Thee, the Sunday School and its work, 
following the work of the faithful who have departed. 
Bless, we most humbly beseech Thee, all the 
interests of Thy church here and Thy church 
everywhere. We pray for a Christian faith like 
that of those whose faith cost them so much, 
who were ready to lay down their lives in holy 
martyrdom on the altar of the Lord. Have we 



50 PRAYER OF COMMEMORATION 

their faith? We listen to their footsteps to-day. 
They have passed on, but the echoes of their 
voices are here and vanishing forms and faces 
linger with us. O God, our Father, we do thank 
Thee for all that Thou hast given to this church 
in all its years. We thank Thee for its great 
historic memories. We thank Thee that it has 
been the scene of the founding of a great denomina- 
tion doing a great work in this our land, and in 
other lands. We bless Thee, O God, that we are 
permitted to stand to-day in this place. As we 
look back into the greatness of the past, and 
forward into the greatness of the future, we praise 
Thee for all that Thou hast given us. Remember 
those who bear sad memories bound up with these 
sacred associations. Help them to remember that 
the Lord will take them into the everlasting arms, 
that He will hover them beneath the shadow of 
His wing, and that He will hold them in the hollow 
of His hand. And now bless us in these services 
to-day and in all days to come, we ask a special 
blessing, in the name of Christ, our Redeemer. 
Amen. 



anniversary hymn 5 1 

Anniversary Hymn 
"TO THEE, OUR GOD, ALMIGHTY KING" 

Words by Dr. de Blots. Sung to the tune "Coronation," composed 
by Oliver Holden, an active member of this church. 

I 

To Thee, our God, Almighty King, 
We bow our hearts in prayer; 

Thy gracious Providence we sing 
For all Thy wondrous care. 

II 

The changing centuries have told 

The story of Thy love, 
Thy light that led the men of old, 

The Day-Star from above. 

Ill 

From form and rite and fettering creed, 

From earthly dust and dross, 
Those prophets of the dawn have freed 

The pilgrims of the cross. 

IV 

In humble home and prison cell 
They witnessed to Thy name; 

No foe their dauntless faith could quell, 
They earned a deathless fame. 

V 

They stand before Thy throne of light; 

To us the task is given 
To dare the Best, to serve the Right, 

To win the joys of heaven. 

5 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

By Rev. Austen K. de Blois, D.D. 

TN ENGLAND the beginnings of Baptist Church 
* life may be traced to the early years of the 
seventeenth century. Led by Thomas Helwys, a 
little company of people, who had been members 
of the Baptist Church in Amsterdam, journeyed in 
1611 from Holland to England, and settled in the 
Newgate section of London. There, in 161 2-14, 
they formed a General Baptist Church, the first of 
our faith in the British Isles. This humble band of 
London Baptists represented in its purest form 
that principle of absolute religious liberty which 
has ever been dear to the people of our communion 
in all lands. They were more independent than the 
Independents. 

Twenty years later, in 1633, tne first church of 
the Particular Baptists was founded in the South- 
wark district of London. The Particularists were 
Calvinistic in belief while the General Baptists were 
Arminians. The two bodies grew in numbers and 
influence through the years, but kept their organ- 
izations distinct until they were finally united under 
the name of the English Baptist Union, in 1885. 

It will thus be seen that the earliest Baptist 
churches in England antedated those of America 
by only thirty years. The First Baptist Church 
in Providence, Rhode Island, the oldest Baptist 
church in America, was established in 1639; the 




REV. AUSTEN K. de BLOIS, D.D. 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 53 

First Church in Newport about 1644; the Second 
Church in Newport in 1656; the Swansea Church 
in 1663; and the First Church in Boston in 1665. 
Thus our church stands fifth in the order of estab- 
lishment, amongst the Baptist churches of the 
Western continent. 

The Founding of the First Church 

1665 — the date is significant in Baptist annals. 
In that year John Bunyan, a prisoner in Bedford 
jail on account of his Baptist convictions, was 
writing "The Pilgrim's Progress," accounted the 
greatest book, except the Bible, in the literatures of 
the world. 

In the same year the English Parliament passed 
the notorious "Five Mile Act," which forbade 
nonconformist ministers who refused to take an 
oath of non-resistance, to come within five miles of 
any town in which they had formerly preached, 
and which also declared them "incapable of teach- 
ing any public or private schools." The object of 
this Act was to silence the ministers or compel 
them to conform for fear of starvation. To their 
honor be it said, the body of Nonconformist minis- 
ters, the majority of whom at that time were Bap- 
tists, refused the oath, "choosing to leave their 
habitations, their relations and friends, and all 
visible support," and to retire to remote and obscure 
villages, rather than violate their consciences and 
surrender their religious liberty. 

"In the year 1665," says the chronicle of the 
Baptist Church in Bristol, "we had many disturb- 



54 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

ances, and divers imprisoned, but the Lord helped 
us through it." A few months before, Benjamin 
Keach, a Baptist minister, had been pilloried and 
exposed to public ridicule in the market-place at 
Windsor. Baptists were strictly forbidden to hold 
any public meetings for worship in any part of the 
Kingdom. They were persecuted everywhere. 
Hundreds of them were thrown into prison. Fam- 
ilies were separated. Numbers escaped to America, 
seeking here the freedom which was denied them 
in their own land. 

In America, however, the same spirit of intol- 
erance prevailed. In that notable year, 1665, 
when confusion and savage brutality reigned in 
Old England, the Puritans of New England were 
filled with like animosity against those whom they 
denounced as " Anabaptistical fanatics." Those 
stern Puritans were opposed to many good and 
gracious things. The writings of Increase Mather, 
and his son Cotton Mather, abound in diatribes 
against the merriment of festival gatherings, the 
natural gaieties of youth, and especially the cele- 
bration of Christmas, which was regarded as the 
survival of a popish superstition and folly. The 
General Court, by legal enactment, made any 
observance of that day a punishable offence. In 
that epochal year 1665 King Charles II formally 
demanded of his New England subjects the repeal 
of this act, but they refused to obey the royal man- 
date. 

The wrath of the Puritans was thus exercised 
against children and youth, festivals and holy days, 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 55 

Papists and Quakers and Baptists. Four Quakers 
were executed in Massachusetts. Though Baptists 
escaped capital punishment within the limits of 
the Colony, they were whipped, imprisoned and 
banished. They were subjected to every insult 
and humiliation. Yet, in the very face of this fierce 
intolerance, and in obedience to their conscience 
and their God, a little group of humble Christians 
organized in that year 1665, the First Baptist 
Church in Boston. It was established, and held its 
services for some years, at Charlestown, probably 
on account of the exceeding bitterness of the Boston 
persecutors. 

The historic day was Sunday, the twenty-eighth 
day of the third month, corresponding to the seventh 
of June in the modern reckoning. Seven men and 
two women constituted the membership. Five of 
these had been Baptists in Old England; the other 
four (Thomas Gold or Gould, Thomas Osborn, 
Edward Drinker and John George) were that day 
baptized. According to their own words, which 
appear as the first entry in the records of our church, 
they " entered into fellowship and communion with 
each other, engaging to walk together in all the 
appointments of their Lord and Master Jesus 
Christ, as far as He should be pleased to make 
known His mind and will to them by His Word 
and Spirit." 

It is difficult for us adequately to realize the 
nature of the challenge involved in the action 
which was taken on that memorable day. In cer- 
tain important respects the founding of this church 



56 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

at that particular time and in this particular locality 
had a greater significance than the founding of any 
other Baptist church which has ever come into 
existence. It was established in the stronghold of 
theocracy, in the midst of vigilant foes, in the teeth 
of persecution, in defiance of the unjust laws of the 
Colony, and in the certain knowledge that its mem- 
bers would be specially marked for bonds and im- 
prisonment. More than this, it was established at 
the very centre of the colonial life of the times, in the 
most prominent of the young towns of America. 
Here, in the years to come, local and national poli- 
cies would originate. From this point influences 
would go forth to make and mould the future 
nation. 

This outstanding importance of the town of 
Boston and the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, and 
their place of leadership in all the affairs of the new 
country, gave also a peculiar and profound signifi- 
cance to the battle for freedom which was waged 
by our Baptist forbears in this section of the West- 
ern world. They were subjected to every humilia- 
tion, civic, social, religious, which their adversaries 
could devise. 

As an historical sketch should aim at frankness 
and accuracy, a few of the gentle epithets which 
passed current amongst the foes of the First Church 
must be recorded. "Obstinate," "turbulent," 
"contentious," "tending to blasphemy," "offen- 
sive," "disseminators of errors," "presumptuous," 
"schismatical," "guilty of high presumption against 
the Lord" are terms employed in the Orders of 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 57 

Court for their apprehension and punishment. 
But the language of the Courts is necessarily 
restrained. The sermons and letters of the Puritan 
clergy, and the loose accusations of lay ''defenders 
of the faith" contain accusing phrases which run 
the whole gamut of insult, ridicule and hatred. 

What was the central crime of which these Boston 
Baptists were guilty? It was simply this: they 
desired the exercise of a free conscience and a free 
church on free soil in a free state. Though they 
knew it not they were prophets of the Revolution 
and the future Republic. Baptists have been in 
every land unflinching and incorrigible advocates 
of democracy. Their everlasting contention is for 
Truth, and for freedom through the Truth. 

The Truth should make men free, they taught 

In conscience, soul and speech; 
Freedom in church and State they sought, 

Freedom to think and teach. 

Puritans and Baptists 

The Baptists have been Protestants of the Prot- 
estants. Their elemental struggle being for liberty, 
they of course denied the principle of authority, 
whether that authority was of man over man, or 
church over church, or state over church. The 
history and the traditions of ages had sanctified 
authority. The idea was inherited, ingrained, 
impregnable. Even those who escaped intolerable 
conditions by immigration to these shores were still 
influenced, though in part unconsciously, by this 
conception. The Puritan Fathers felt strongly the 



58 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

necessity for preserving the integrity of their own 
church order. They ardently hoped that their 
parent community in this new country might be 
kept free from heresy and degeneracy. They 
regarded the protests of Baptists and Quakers as 
evidences of a turbulent spirit. So they resorted 
to the ancient means, the only method which the 
experience of the past supplied, the exercise of 
constituted authority, to check and defeat their 
obnoxious neighbors. They were faithful to tradi- 
tion. They preached conformity. O, fearful word 
in the church's history, Conformity, mother of 
tyrannies ! 

The Baptists, the little group of daring saints 
who had the hardihood to organize the First Church 
in face of the leagued forces of the Standing Order, 
were, on the other hand, true spiritual pioneers. 
Lowly in station and humble-hearted, they were 
nevertheless without fear. They declared their 
right to worship God after their own fashion. 
They followed the leadership of the Holy Spirit. 
They, as the Puritans, realized their obligation to 
posterity. They built for eternity. 

The Puritans were for the most part sincere and 
honest men, though exceedingly narrow and bigoted. 
They were anxious that the doctrines which they 
believed should be binding upon all the men of the 
Colony. So they persecuted Quakers. So they 
executed seven men and thirteen women for witch- 
craft. So they flogged Obadiah Holmes, the Bap- 
tist preacher. So they delivered Thomas Gould 
and his friends to prison. So they deposed Henry 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 59 

Dunster from the presidency of Harvard College 
for the crime of being a Baptist. If they should 
allow men to enjoy religious liberty, they reasoned; 
if they should permit men, for example, to hold 
convictions of their own regarding the ordinance 
of infant baptism, the regularity of the churches 
would be disturbed, the authority of the church 
would be questioned, and the influence of religion 
upon men's minds would be weakened. The prac- 
tise of infant baptism was a bond particularly 
strong. It claimed the children at the beginning 
for the church, and enabled them to be trained 
under its discipline. To assail this ordinance was 
to attempt the destruction of one of the strongest 
pillars of church government. Baptists did so 
assail ; therefore, they must be dealt with vigorously. 

Yet we must hold clearly in mind the fact that 
beneath the contention of the early Baptists of 
Boston that the compulsory baptism of uncon- 
scious infants was the unworthy prostitution of a 
sacred rite, lay a deeper and more distinctively 
spiritual principle. These people were advocates 
of freedom of conscience and of worship. They 
were thus in the glorious line of Baptist apostolic 
succession. 

Sanford H. Cobb, in his great volume on "The 
Rise of Religious Liberty in America," has this to 
say: "Among the few and scattered European 
voices for religious liberty heard in the two hundred 
and fifty years from the day of Luther, the place of 
honor is undoubtedly to be accorded to the Ana- 
baptists. Their doctrine is one of the most remark- 



60 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

able things which appeared in that wonderful age. 
It came to speech with a clearness and fulness which 
suggest a revelation. . . . The doctrine, mak- 
ing a thorough distinction between the kingdom of 
nature and the kingdom of grace, insisted that 
freedom of conscience and of worship was funda- 
mental, and that religion should be entirely exempt 
from the regulation and interference of the civil 
power. . . . Besides this, they declared that 
the church should be composed exclusively of the 
regenerate, membership therein to be conditioned, 
not upon residence or birth, but upon the work of 
grace in the heart. . . . There can be but one 
mind as to the grandeur of the doctrine thus pro- 
pounded by the Anabaptists, and as to the immense 
blessings which it finally conferred upon the world. 
. . . When the struggle for religious liberty took 
place in America, among the various churches the 
Baptists were most strenuous and sturdy in its 
defence." 

The Faith of the Fathers 

The First Church was organized quietly and held 
its services secretly, according to the fashion of the 
early Christians in the days of the Roman perse- 
cutions. The constable of Charlestown was bidden 
by warrant to seek out their meeting-place and 
command their attendance at the established 
churches. Failing this they were to be apprehended 
and brought before the magistrates. One of the 
Orders of the General Court decreed that, "this 
Court, taking the premises into consideration, do 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 6 1 

judge meet to declare that the same Goold and 
company are no orderly church assembly, and that 
they stand justly convicted of high presumption 
against the Lord and his holy appointments, as 
also the peace of this government." 

Every one of the male members of the church 
was speedily disfranchised and cut off from every 
participation in the public affairs of the Colony. 
Five at least of the seven men who were constituent 
members suffered imprisonment at one time or an- 
other for the cause of conscience — these were 
Thomas Gould, Thomas Osborne, Edward Drinker, 
John George and William Turner. Robert Lam- 
bert, another of the seven, was probably subjected 
to like treatment, for we find him, when under 
arrest for his religious convictions, replying boldly 
to the demands of the Court to cease attending the 
Baptist meetings. He declared with eminent frank- 
ness that he was "determined to continue in that 
way, and was ready to seal it with his blood." 

All of the four men whose baptism sanctified the 
first day of this church's history suffered severely 
at the hands of the authorities. They witnessed a 
good profession, not accepting deliverance when the 
price of pardon was the denial of their faith. In 
1668 the General Court entered a sweeping decree. 
After anathematizing the Baptists in blustering 
sentences it sentenced the whole sect to banishment 
from the Colony. As the only other Baptist church 
in Massachusetts was the one at Swanzy, and as 
that church had never taken high ground on such 
matters as the union of church and state, and so 



62 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

had never been molested, the whole force of this 
decree was evidently directed against the First 
Church in Boston, which now numbered about 
seventeen members. These men and women took 
no notice of the drastic law, and, it was found impos- 
sible or impracticable to enforce it. 

The First Pastor 

It has often been said that, had Henry Dunster 
lived, he would have become the first pastor of the 
First Church. The assertion can hardly be 
doubted. Henry Dunster was the first presi- 
dent of Harvard College. He was one of the fore- 
most men of the Colony. He was a friend of 
Thomas Gould and of other men who became 
the founders of the church. He had convictions 
and expressed them fearlessly, as Baptists do. 
He boldly preached against infant baptism, and in 
favor of believers* baptism, in 1653, the year after 
three Baptist "stalwarts" Holmes, Clarke and 
Crandall, were imprisoned and one of them pub- 
licly flogged. He was therefore obliged to resign 
his presidency. He removed from the jurisdiction 
of the persecuting powers, and died at Scituate in 
Plymouth Colony in 1659. His name deserves to 
be chronicled amongst the heroes of faith. 

The first pastor of the church was Thomas Gould, 
a wagon-maker and a man of some property. His 
character was beyond reproach. Yet he was ac- 
cused by his former friends of the Charlestown 
Congregational Church, of having been " excom- 
municated for moral scandals." What were these 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 63 

startling immoralities? As stated by Samuel Wil- 
lard, who wrote in quite vitriolic terms against Gould, 
they were as follows: i. "He absented himself from 
public worship." This was for the very good reason 
that he, with others, had worship of his own to 
attend. 2. "He refused to bring his infant child to 
be baptized." This was because he could not so 
present his child without violating his convictions. 
3. "He was instrumental in forming another So- 
ciety," that of the First Baptist Church, "without 
leave from the church to which he belonged." It 
may have been somewhat unwise not to notify 
the church of his intended withdrawal, but in help- 
ing to organize the new society he was simply fol- 
lowing the dictates of his conscience. He did not 
feel bound to a church which he believed to be guilty 
of pagan usage in practicing infant baptism, and 
which had repeatedly denied to him and his friends 
the right to worship after their own fashion. 

In brief, Mr. Gould's heinous moral derelictions 
consisted in obeying the voice of the Spirit of God 
in his soul, rather than the promptings of policy, fear 
or selfishness. The issue tested his courage to the 
full. He spent one year in prison. He was con- 
demned and ostracized as a foe to the social order. 
He was deprived of all the rights of a citizen. He 
suffered in property and health. His death was 
hastened by the cold and hunger to which he was 
subjected during his incarceration. When he was 
released from prison he was obliged to remove from 
Charlestown to Noddle's Island to escape his per- 



64 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

secutors. He died a martyr to the cause of justice 
and freedom. 

That the authorities particularly hated and 
feared this good man, and that they recognized his 
strong leadership, is seen in the fact that one of the 
chief counts against his associates, when from time 
to time they were arrested, was that they had con- 
sorted with that " schismatical Anabaptist, Thomas 
Gould." It was a difficult and most perplexing 
matter to be a Baptist in those days. When one 
remained within the Puritan establishment, and 
dared to express dissent from doctrine or practice, 
he was persecuted. If, on the other hand, he broke 
away from a church of the Standing Order in order 
to worship with his fellow-Baptists, he was perse- 
cuted still more rigorously. 

The Laymen of the Early Years 

The names of a host of efficient laymen appear 
on the rolls and records of the church. In all the 
early years of its history it was customary for the 
elders and deacons to serve in every needed capacity, 
preaching, teaching, counselling, visiting; and de- 
fending, at the risk of property, influence, reputa- 
tion and life itself, the principles of their faith. 

They were plain men, doing practical Christian 
work in earnest fashion. Philip Squire and Ellis 
Callendar owned pieces of property adjoining each 
other. Callendar was at that time a lay preacher, 
not being ordained until nearly thirty years later. 
These worthy men planned together, and as a re- 
sult the First Church moved into Boston, in de- 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 65 

fiance of the authorities. A building was erected 
on the land owned by these two men, or, to be 
exact, "at the foot of an open lot, running down 
from Salem street to the mill-pond." The church 
was invited to assemble in this new meeting-house. 
Although it was strictly private property the Court 
issued an edict forbidding its use as a place of 
worship, and on March 8, 1680, the doors were 
nailed up by the city marshall, and meetings therein 
were forbidden. On the Sunday following services 
were held in the yard, but on the next Sunday, when 
the people assembled, they found the doors wide 
open. How this strange thing came to pass, how 
the nails were drawn and the doors flung open, no 
man knew and none knows now. The people en- 
tered and joined in happy worship, and from that 
day to this, a period of 235 years, the regular meet- 
ings of Boston Baptists have been allowed to pro- 
ceed without interference from the governing pow- 
ers. Thus the permanent establishment of the 
church in Boston was due to the wise devotion of 
the laymen, for the pastor, Mr. Russell, was at that 
time aged and feeble, and within a few months 
thereafter he died. 

Again and again the Baptists were accused of 
disloyalty — and of disobedience to government, 
"especially in the matter of a defensive war." 
This charge is even embodied in one of the laws of 
the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Yet old Roger 
Williams of Providence and Mr. Brown of Swansea, 
both Baptists, risked their lives by giving themselves 
up voluntarily as hostages to the Indians, that the 



66 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

latter's Chief might hold conference with the 
Massachusetts Governor. By this means the out- 
break of King Philip's War was postponed for four 
full years. When the breach finally came between 
Indians and colonists, two of the constituent mem- 
bers of the First Church in Boston were amongst the 
earliest defenders of the homes and lives of the 
people. William Turner and Edward Drinker had 
both been imprisoned a few years before for daring 
to be Baptists; yet now they gathered a company 
of volunteers for the war. They were refused a 
commission because the chief men of the company 
were Baptists. Later, when the war grew more des- 
tructive, and the country came into very great dis- 
tress, this company of Baptist soldiers was accepted. 
Turner was made Captain and Drinker Lieutenant. 
By them the Indians were repulsed and driven off 
from Northampton, and afterwards, at the falls 
above Deerfield, they gave the enemy the greatest 
blow he had received. This was the crisis of the 
entire campaign. After this the Indians were 
broken and scattered, so that they were easily sub- 
dued. Captain Turner was killed but the Falls 
received his name and bear it still. Thus did two 
noble laymen of the First Church, and their asso- 
ciates, vindicate their patriotism. 

Within the church itself the lay element seems 
always to have been alert and helpful. Believing 
in freedom of speech, and repudiating all orders 
and ceremonies, the members of the Baptist Com- 
munity were always ready to stand in their place 
and bear witness to the truth. During the nine 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 67 

years between 1699 and 1708, when the pastorate 
was vacant, the pulpit was constantly occupied by 
these lay brethren, who rendered effective service. 

The Successors of Thomas Gould 

The second pastor, Rev. John Russell, published 
a Narrative, giving a history of the church, and 
defending its members from the charges brought 
against them. Rev. Samuel Willard, minister of 
the church now known as the "Old South,' ' at- 
tempted a reply. To this he gave the title, ' ' Cobbler, 
Stick to Your Last," in sneering reference to the 
fact that Russell's trade had been that of a shoe- 
maker. Dr. Increase Mather, in his preface to this 
pamphlet, says that "many are of the mind that it 
is not worth the while to take notice of what is 
emitted by men so obscure and inconsiderable. 
. . . The author of the following animadver- 
sions hath shewed humility, in condescending to 
take persons in hand, between whom and himself, 
there is such an impar congressus." For pure and 
undiluted snobbery this language could hardly be 
surpassed. 

Elsewhere Dr. Mather accuses the Baptists of 
committing the sin of Jeroboam, who made priests 
of the lowest of the people; while Dr. Mather's 
son, the eminent Dr. Cotton Mather, in a later 
publication complains that "these people chose an 
honest shoemaker to be their pastor, and used 
other mechanics in the constant preaching of the 
Gospel, which caused some other people of a more 
liberal education to reflect that if Goodman such 



68 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

an one, and Gaffer such an one, were fit for min- 
isters, we had befooled ourselves in building of 
Colleges." In such genial and brotherly phrases 
did the learned leaders of the day evince their class- 
consciousness. 

Isaac Hull and John Emblem were co-pastors 
for fifteen years, following Mr. Russell. By the 
resignation of the former and the death of the latter 
in the same year, 1699, the church was left pastor- 
less, and so continued for nine years. Then Ellis 
Callendar was chosen to lead the people, and ten 
years later his son, Elisha Callendar, was associ- 
ated with him. It is interesting to notice that six 
of the seven men who were chosen to the pastorate 
of the church, and exercised their ministry here, 
between 1665 and 1764, a period of about one hun- 
dred years, had been members of the church for 
some time, in one case for sixteen years, in another 
case for nearly forty years, before being called to the 
formal leadership of the congregation. Truly these 
prophets were not without honor amongst their 
own people. 

At the ordination of Elisha Callendar, in 171 8, 
three Congregational ministers, Dr. Increase and 
Dr. Cotton Mather and Mr. Webb, were pres- 
ent and conducted the service. Cotton Mather 
preached the sermon. His father, writing of the 
event, remarks rather condescendingly that "it 
was a grateful surprise to me when several of the 
brethren of the antipedo baptist persuasion came 
to me, desiring that I should give them the right 
hand of fellowship in ordaining one whom they had 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 69 

chosen to be their pastor. I did (as I believe it was 
my duty) readily consent to what they proposed, 
considering the young man to be ordained is serious 
and pious and of a candid spirit, and has been 
educated in the College at Cambridge, and that all 
the brethren with whom I have any acquaintance 
(I hope the like concerning others of them) are, 
in the judgment of rational charity, goodly persons." 
So the Puritan ice was broken at last, and the first 
act of Christian fellowship was performed. 

Elisha Callendar was one of the earliest repre- 
sentatives, amongst our Baptist people in America, 
of education and culture. Through his influence 
Thomas Hollis of London, an eminent Baptist 
layman, was persuaded to give abundantly of his 
means to Harvard College. He became, as Dr. 
Isaac Backus in his history tells us, "the greatest 
benefactor to the University at Cambridge of any 
one man in th e world. " The Hollis professorships 
were founded by his generosity. 

In a remarkable degree Elisha Callendar united 
the elements of scholarship, spirituality and fellow- 
ship. The Church prospered greatly under his 
guidance. The meeting-house was enlarged, many 
new members were received and the church exer- 
cised a vigorous influence throughout the com- 
munity. It was the habit of Mr. Callendar, in 
spite of his always feeble health, to preach as 
occasion offered in neighboring towns, and as far 
away as Sutton, Leicester, Marshfield, Salem and 
Springfield. In most of these places people were 
baptized and became members of the Boston 



70 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

church. The successor to the beloved Elisha 
Callendar was Jeremiah Condy, a graduate of 
Harvard, who began his ministry in the year 1738. 
He was already well known to the people, having 
been a member for more than nine years before 
his call to the pastorate. 

The Eldest Daughter of the Church 

In 1743 the Second Baptist Church was organ- 
ized. It came into being as a protest against the 
Arminian tendencies of Mr. Condy. Let it be 
frankly confessed at this late day, there was good 
reason for this action. Mr. Condy was pastor for 
twenty-six years, yet during that entire period only 
forty- three additions were made to the church, 
forty by baptism and three by letter. On the other 
hand there were many serious losses. The White- 
field revival, which swept over the country, found 
the pastor and most of the members of the old 
church entirely unresponsive. In 1743 there were 
only five Baptist churches in Massachusetts, be- 
sides the one in Boston. Two of these were in 
Swansea, both large and flourishing, one in Chil- 
mark, one in Leicester and one in Brimfield. The 
Boston church had thus a wide territory in which to 
operate, a noble opportunity for the exercise of a 
powerful and productive gospel ministry. Yet its 
membership was less than one hundred in 1743 and 
this number had decreased to sixty in 1665, the 
hundredth anniversary of its founding. Mr. Condy 
was highly esteemed for his fine integrity and 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 7 1 

character, but he lacked the warmth of the evangel- 
ical and evangelizing spirit. 

It was as a protest, an active counter-movement, 
against this sleepy and indifferent state, that the 
Second Church was founded. Deacon James 
Bound was the leader of the disaffected members. 
They claimed that in opposing "the Great Awaken- 
ing" Mr. Condy was hindering the progress of true 
religion in the hearts of the people. His preaching 
on the subject of regeneration, they said, was "so 
ill-grounded, so intermixed with man's free-will 
agency, and so widely different from what our 
Lord taught and intended thereby, that we cannot 
avoid questioning whether he ever experienced the 
saving operation of that most important doctrine 
in his own soul." Seven men left the old church 
and on July 27, 1743, formed the Second Baptist 
Church in Boston. A few weeks later, on Septem- 
ber 7, they ordained Ephraim Bound, son of Deacon 
Bound, and he became their first pastor. 

For nearly twenty years he labored with great 
success as the leader of the new interest. In 1762 
he suffered a paralytic stroke. From the effect of 
this he partially recovered, and was able to exercise 
a limited ministry until his death, two and a half 
years later, but it was felt that he should have 
assistance in his pastoral duties. Word had come 
to Boston of the unusual gifts of a young minister 
in New Jersey, Rev. Samuel Stillman, so he was 
called to be the associate of Mr. Bound, and ac- 
cepted the invitation. In the autumn of 1764 the 
resignation of Mr. Condy left the mother church 



72 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

without a leader. Its members turned at once to 
Mr. Stillman, and besought him to become their 
pastor. On account of certain unpleasant con- 
ditions at the Second Church he yielded to their 
wishes, much to the discomfiture of his former 
parishioners, who were highly indignant that the 
brilliant young minister whom they had discovered 
should be snatched from them in this summary 
manner. Mr. Bound died soon after, and not for 
■many years did the Second Church obtain a pastor. 

The Good Dr. Stillman 

For forty-two years, and until the day of his 
death, Samuel Stillman held the pastorate of the 
First Church. It was the most notable in the 
entire history of the organization. The times were 
perilous. Conditions were confused and often 
chaotic. Religious indifference was widespread. 
The events of the Revolutionary War, and the 
re-adjustments which followed, were comprised 
within this period. It required a stout heart and 
a clear head to guide the church's destiny in ways 
of power and peace. Dr. Stillman was pre-emi- 
nently the man for the hour. During the epoch of 
change and turmoil he held the church true to its 
lofty ideals. He did more. He " strengthened 
the things which remained, which were ready to 
die. " He was an eloquent and whole-souled 
preacher of the everlasting gospel. In spite of all 
difficulties the church prospered. There were great 
ingatherings of happy converts. 

Dr. Stillman has been described as "the most 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 73 

popular pulpit orator of his day. " He was a warm 
friend of President Washington. The first Presi- 
dent Adams always attended his preaching when 
in Boston, and Governor Hancock in the latter 
years of his life was a regular member of his congre- 
gation. This truly great man had a most affection- 
ate heart. He was a lover of men, a shepherd of 
souls, a quiet king, wielding the sceptre of divine 
love in the midst of evil and bitter conditions. 

The contest for liberty in which the Baptists 
engaged was in this colony of Massachusetts neither 
a short nor an easy battle. It was waged for more 
than one hundred years. Indeed, even the Revo- 
lution did not end it, nor did it wholly cease until 
after the dawn of the nineteenth century. In no 
other part of America was privilege so strongly 
entrenched. The churches of the Establishment 
were practically a unit in their dislike for the weak 
sect of Baptists. For about thirty years after the 
founding of the First Church in Boston there was 
only one other Baptist Church in the Colony, while 
there were about forty churches of the Congrega- 
tional order, many of them strong and influential, 
comprising in their membership the leaders in the 
political, educational and social life of the com- 
munity. In no colony was there such wide-spread 
persecution. Yet the Baptist protest was calm, 
continuous and unflinching. Under the leadership 
of Samuel Stillman, James Manning and Isaac 
Backers the final fight for freedom was now to be 
made. 

The same spirit that was in Thomas Gould and 



74 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

Thomas Osborn in 1665 animated the soul of Samuel 
Stillman in 1787, when he took his place as a mem- 
ber of the Federal Convention of Massachusetts, a 
distinguished body summoned to consider the 
matter of the adoption of the Constitution of the 
United States. It should be borne in mind that the 
decision of this particular Convention went far to 
settle the entire question of such adoption. The 
fact that the Constitution granted a measure of 
religious liberty to all citizens led Dr. Stillman and 
President Manning of Brown University to advo- 
cate its endorsement. They addressed the people 
in various parts of the country, appealing with 
earnest intensity for their co-operation. The Con- 
stitution was finally ratified by a narrow vote, some 
Baptist delegates voting against it, doubtless for 
the reason that the provisions for absolute religious 
liberty were not sufficiently clear. A few months 
later, however, through the agency of the Baptists 
of Virginia and their brethren of like faith in other 
sections, the great First Amendment was adopted. 
Its terms set forth that "Congress shall make no 
law respecting an establishment of religion, or 
prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging 
the freedom of speech or of the press." 

Massachusetts was the last of the states to 
surrender its ecclesiastical pretensions. The evil 
spirit of intolerance lingered long. It was in 1693 
that the churches in Boston which did not conform 
to the Standing Order were given such liberty that 
no man was compelled to support any minister or 
church that he did not personally choose. This 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 75 

liberty, however, was denied to all people outside 
the town, even as late as 1774. And, in Boston 
itself, though formal liberty in the matter of taxa- 
tion was decreed at so early a date, no real freedom 
in other respects was enjoyed. 

For many years after the adoption of the Con- 
stitution and its First Amendment, a large propor- 
tion of the people of the State were stoutly opposed 
to the principle of separation of Church and State. 
They let that fact be known in many most unpleas- 
ant ways. In 1783 the Baptists of Cambridge 
were taxed to support the Congregational Churches. 
In Barnstable, Rehoboth and various other locali- 
ties bold attempts were made to perpetuate the 
ancient regime. To combat these undemocratic 
survivals the Warren Association appointed a 
Committee, of which Dr. Stillman was Chairman, 
to guard the rights of Baptist churches. To this 
committee oppressed churches made their appeal, 
and it rendered a splendid and continuing practical 
service. 

Dr. Tappan in his Election Sermon at Boston 
in 1792 referred proudly to the Congregational 
ministers of New England as "the Christian Priest- 
hood. " Lothrop's " Discourses, " a book published 
in Boston and reaching its sixth edition in 1793, 
represents all ministers not ordained by ministers 
who received their seal of ordination by succession 
from Europe, as "wolves in sheep's clothing." As 
late as 1794 a member of the Baptist Church in 
Medford was seized and imprisoned for refusing 
to pay his tax in support of the Congregational 



76 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

ministry of the town. It was hoped that the Con- 
vention of 1820, called to amend the State Consti- 
tution, would remedy the evil, but "through the 
determined opposition of John Adams" the letter 
of the law, perpetuating the unholy union between 
Church and State, remained in force. It was not 
until 1833 that the final link was severed, and, last 
of all the states of this Republic to enroll themselves 
in the cause of genuine liberty, the people of Massa- 
chusetts dissolved forever the bonds of legal and 
ecclesiastical tyranny, and the remaining remnant 
of Puritan bondage was destroyed. 

The Dawn of the New Age 

The years of Dr. Stillman's pastorate were 
marked, not only by vast political changes in state 
and nation ; they also witnessed a most important 
development of Baptist interests everywhere. In 
1765 there were only thirty- two scattered churches 
in the six districts afterwards known as the New 
England states. The most of these were feeble 
and oppressed. In 1795 there were 330 churches 
with 22,000 members in New England, and 1,152 
churches, with 74,000 members in the United 
States. Thus in thirty years exactly 300 Baptist 
churches were organized in New England, a magnifi- 
cent record. No less than 218 of these were in- 
stituted within sixteen years, between 1780 and 
1796. Besides this, solid foundations had been 
laid, the battle for freedom had been fought and 
won, the Baptist people were ready for a powerful 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 77 

forward movement. Witness now the inauguration 
of the great age of missionary progress ! 

Here, as always, the First Church in Boston held 
its natural place of pioneer leadership. The first 
missionary organization to be formed by the 
Baptists of America was the Massachusetts Baptist 
Missionary Society, which was founded May 26, 
1802, in the meeting-house of the old Boston church. 
This entrance into a sphere of great missionary 
activity was not a sudden and impulsive move- 
ment. It was rather the inevitable product of a 
century and a half of spiritual development. 

These people were ready for the new leadership 
because they had cherished the evangelical spirit. 
Their historic insistence upon the Headship of 
Christ, the sufficiency of the Scriptures and the 
necessity for personal repentance and faith as pre- 
liminaries to baptism and church-membership 
had adequately prepared them for a gracious gos- 
pel ministry in all lands. They were held in check 
and relieved of responsibility by no intermediaries. 
They were obliged to consult no priest or Council. 
No learned conclave debated the merits of the case ; 
no stately clericalism obscured the issue. They 
looked straight into the face of Jesus Christ. They 
felt the thrill of the Spirit. They who had dared 
and endured because of their loyal obedience to 
the Master were eager still to be loyal, still to obey; 
so they could give only one answer to the command 
"Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel." 
That answer was the definite organization of mis- 
sionary work, and the outpouring of gifts for its 



78 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

prosecution. The evangelical spirit and the mission- 
ary motive are forever intertwined. 

They were ready also because they had contended 
for certain vital religious principles and had won 
the fight. It was natural that they should wish to 
impart those principles to other souls, the world 
over. It is significant that the close of the long 
period of discipline should have immediately pre- 
ceded the commencement of the era of missionary 
progress. The wilderness journeyings are over — 
now for the conquest of the Promised Land ! Was 
it not the divine voice speaking: "Thou hast been 
faithful over a few things: I will make thee ruler 
over many things." 

The struggle for existence, the contest for recog- 
nition of elemental convictions, had been achieved. 
National democracy, the very Constitution of the 
United States, had been founded upon those truths 
of liberty and fraternity which humble Baptist 
churches had been proclaiming for more than a 
century. Formalism and creed — worship in other 
Protestant denominations had suffered shock after 
shock because of the emphasis given to spiritual 
religion by these same devoted companies of Bap- 
tist believers. Now opens the missionary age! 
It is the golden hour, the gracious opportunity, to 
carry into the whole world-field those treasures of 
the spirit which they have safeguarded and de- 
fended. Those who have made so significant a 
contribution to Christian faith and life are now to 
be path-finders in the heralding of the Gospel mes- 
sage to the very ends of the earth. 



historical address 79 

The Ways of the Spirit 

Two movements among the Boston Baptists in 
the closing years of Dr. Stillman's pastorate were 
especially influential in preparing the way for the 
era of missionary development. One was the for- 
mation of the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary 
Society, the fruitful mother of all Baptist home and 
foreign missionary organizations on the American 
Continent. Dr. Stillman's name appears at the 
head of the Committee which called the meeting of 
organization. He and Mr. Oliver Holden were the 
representatives of this church on the newly-consti- 
tuted board of trustees. At the initial meeting the 
Society showed that it was in dead earnest and in- 
tended to undertake mighty things for the King- 
dom. It appointed three missionaries, two of 
whom were to go at once to "the new settlements 
in the districts of Maine and New Hampshire" and 
the third to "the new settlements in the north- 
westerly parts of New York," and the adjacent 
sections of Canada. 

Dr. Stillman, for the Committee, addressed a 
brotherly letter to the missionaries which said : "We 
are persuaded that your zeal for the divine glory 
and compassionate affection for the souls of men, 
will stimulate you to every effort which human 
energy can effect, to promote the glorious cause 
in which you have embarked. " The letter directed 
that each missionary should keep a faithful journal 
of his experiences and should communicate by 
letter with the Committee from time to time. As 



80 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

these letters and reports began to come in, means 
were sought whereby the people of all the churches 
could be brought into vital contact with the labors 
of the devoted missionaries. So The Msisionary 
Magazine was established, with its headquarters in 
Boston. In its pages this correspondence, carried 
on chiefly with Dr. Stillman, was published. 

In this way, and through these agencies, the 
world-wide evangelistic and missionary enterprises 
of American Baptists had their origin. It must be 
borne in mind that large sections, even of New 
England, were as yet very sparsely settled. It 
meant heroic self-denial for these missionaries of 
the cross to undertake their long and often painful 
journeys to the forests of Maine, the wilderness- 
stretches of New Hampshire and the " jungles" of 
Northern New York and Canada. 

The second important event was the experience 
of a profound spiritual awakening in the Baptist 
churches of Boston. It continued for two years 
and resulted in the addition of more than two hun- 
dred members to the First and Second churches. 
Coming as it did at a time when the Unitarian con- 
troversy was in full tide, it undoubtedly held the 
people of our denomination true to the fundamental 
principles of evangelical Christianity. 

In that perilous period of confusion and disaffec- 
tion, when the hearts of many waxed cold and the 
faith of many withered and died, the old First 
Church was radiant with the warmth of the living 
gospel. It was as a city set upon a hill which 
could not be hid. Forth from its doors and win- 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 8l 

dows, night after night, there shone "the light that 
never was on land or sea." People came, and 
heard, and were converted. It was a crisis of great 
moment in the religious life of Boston; but two 
grand men of God, Stillman and Baldwin, with their 
associates, "filled with the Spirit and with power," 
testified without ceasing to the truth of the pure 
evangel of Jesus, and so the victory of grace was 
won. Illuminating reports of the progress of the 
revival appeared in the pages of the Missionary 
Magazine. 

Also, in the first issue of the Magazine there were 
published interesting extracts from a letter written 
by the illustrious William Carey, and a lengthy 
address from the missionaries in India to the Hin- 
dus. This address had been distributed amongst 
the natives, and the copy which appeared in the 
Magazine had been forwarded by Mr. Carey. Al- 
most every succeeding issue of the paper contains 
missionary intelligence from India or a personal 
letter from one or another of the missionaries. 
Thus the good seed was being sown and events were 
preparing for the advent of Adoniram Judson and 
the great foreign enterprises of the church. 

The success of the new missionary journal was 
due not only to the editorial oversight of Dr. Still- 
man and Dr. Baldwin, but as well to the wise inter- 
est and effort of a great-hearted layman of the First 
Church, Deacon James Loring, the publisher. In 
1 819 the oldest Baptist weekly in America, The 
Watchman, was founded in Boston, with Mr. Loring 
as editor. The second Baptist weekly in America, 



82 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

The Reflector, (ultimately combined with The Watch- 
man) , was established soon afterwards at Worcester, 
Mass. It is interesting to notice that its founder 
and first editor was Rev. C. P. Grosvenor, who 
about six years later became pastor of this church. 
So the First Church in Boston was very vitally 
connected with the founding of the three oldest 
regular periodicals established by American Bap- 
tists. 

Varying Fortunes 

The successor to Dr. Stillman, Rev. Joseph E. 
Clay, was a brilliant Southerner. He had been a 
lawyer, and when he renounced the law for the 
ministry, in obedience to the call of inner convic- 
tion, he had been for several years judge of the 
United States Court for the District of Georgia. 
In personal and intellectual qualities Judge Clay 
was richly endowed, but he suffered from the dis- 
tinguished fame of his predecessor, so he was soon 
involved in church difficulties and broken in health. 

The name of the next pastor, Rev. J. M. Winchell, 
will always be spoken reverently by the sons and 
daughters of the church. He was a musician, and 
"WincheH's Watts" was a hymn-collection widely 
used and justly famous. Sincere, modest, refined, 
yet bearing a soul that burned with zeal for 
Christ, he is perhaps the most fascinating figure in 
all the long line of pastors. That he was practical 
as well is shown by the fact that during his short 
term of office two Sunday-schools were started; a 
Singing Society, for years a very vigorous institu- 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 83 

tion, was organized; and a permanent fund for the 
relief of the poor of the church was founded. He 
co-operated in the formation of the Female Refuge, 
and was active in many humane movements. 

Mr. Winchell was a careful and accurate student. 
In 1 81 8 he published an historical account of the 
origin and development of the First Church, the 
earliest connected narrative of this sort which had 
appeared. How abundant were the labors of this 
choice young man! He achieved, in his quiet way, 
constructive work of permanent value. Dr. Bald- 
win, the famous pastor of the Second Church, said 
of him: ''Without deceit or guile his heart seemed 
formed for friendship." Dr. Rufus Babcock re- 
lates many incidents, illustrating the wonderful 
kindness and beauty of his nature. He has com- 
monly been referred to as "the beloved Winchell." 
Summoned so soon to the eternal service of his 
blessed Lord, he bequeathed to the people of his 
flock a treasure of loving-kindness, a record of 
unfailing devotion, much more precious than the 
gold which perisheth. 

The Sunday-schools, to which reference has just 
been made, were established for the instruction of 
"Females" and "indigent boys," respectively. 
They were later united in one school, which con- 
tinues to this day. The chief objects of these 
schools at the beginning was to instruct the scholars 
in the rudiments of an English education, to bring 
them under religious influences and to secure their 
attendance at public worship. The children of 
church-members were supposed to receive, and in 
7 



84 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

most cases did receive, such faithful religious train- 
ing and discipline in the home, that the Sunday- 
school was quite unnecessary for their needs. 
Times have changed since then! 

To the saintly Winchell succeeded the illustrious 
Francis Wayland, author, educator, administrator 
and Christian statesman. From an obscure posi- 
tion as a tutor in Union College he was called, at 
the age of twenty-five, to the pastorate of this 
church, and here, with elaborate ceremonies, he 
was ordained. This was his first and only pastoral 
charge. From here he went to a professorship at 
Union College, his Alma Mater, and within a few 
months thereafter to the presidency of Brown Uni- 
versity, where he wrought mightily for many years, 
until his retirement from active service. 

Mr. Wayland's specifically pastoral labors were 
not abundant. His ordinary preaching failed to 
awaken enthusiasm or response. Members drifted 
away. In a little more than five years he received 
only thirty-six new members, an annual average of 
seven. Three events of great importance, however, 
mark his larger ministry for this city and state, and 
the wide world beyond. I. On November 10, 
1824, the Massachusetts Baptist State Convention 
was organized in the meeting-house of the First 
Church. 2. On May 25, 1825, the Newton The- 
ological Institution was founded in the vestry of 
the First Church, a Board of Trustees was elected 
and Mr. Wayland was chosen as its first Secretary. 
3. On the evening of Sunday, October 26, 1823, 
the epochal sermon on "The Moral Dignity of 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 85 

the Missionary Enterprise " was preached by the 
pastor to a small company, representing the Bap- 
tist Foreign Missionary Society convened in its 
annual meeting. 

It takes but a moment to state these simple 
facts. It would take a lifetime to estimate the 
values which those facts embody. It requires, 
however, no profound wisdom to recognize the 
infinite interests involved in the three epoch-making 
events which have just been indicated. The 
bringing together of the various scattered associa- 
tions in one strong and state-wide Convention 
was a step whose production efficiency has appeared 
in all the succeeding years. The provision for the 
higher training and spiritual culture of the Baptist 
ministry of New England through the establish- 
ment of a splendid school of theology has brought 
incalculable blessings to the churches directly 
answerable to its influence and to our Baptist 
cause throughout the world. The foreign mission 
sermon proved to be one of those massive yet 
illuminating discourses which change the current 
of men's thought and set in motion vast spiritual 
forces. 

During the pastorate of Dr. Wayland's successor, 
Rev. C. P. Grosvenor, the church moved from 
the location which it had occupied for 150 years, 
and a new building was erected on the corner of 
Hanover and Union Streets. On June 18, 1829, the 
dedication services were held. The spacious brick 
building which was set apart for worship on that 



86 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

day was for twenty-five years the home of the 
church. 

Twice since the opening of the new century very 
young men had been summoned to the responsibili- 
ties of pastoral leadership, Winchell at twenty- 
three and Wayland at twenty-six. Now another 
youth, William Hague, who had just passed his 
twenty-third birthday, was called to the helm of 
affairs. He, like so many of his predecessors, 
possessed commanding abilities. He remained a 
little more than six years, and resigned, much to 
the grief of his people, when all the activities under 
his care were prospering abundantly. Dr. Hague 
exercised a notable ministry, and exerted a wide- 
spread influence throughout New England for more 
than fifty years ; and was always recognized as one 
of the ablest preachers of his denomination. 

A Forty Years' Leadership 

To these three short pastorates succeeded the 
longest save one in the entire history of the organiza- 
tion. Rollin H. Neale came to the First Church at 
the age of twenty-nine, full of the sparkling fire 
of youth, and laid down his charge when he was 
fast bordering on his three score years and ten, 
yet with "his eye still clear and his natural force 
unabated." Mr. Neale was a man of varied gifts. 
His character, like his body, was moulded to large 
proportions. He possessed that attitude of com- 
mand, that poise and virility, which win and hold 
men easily. Both mind and heart were amply 
endowed. The universities at Providence and 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 87 

Cambridge honored him as a man of intellectual 
force, by conferring upon him the doctorate in 
divinity. The people of his parish, together with 
many men and women beyond its limits, honored 
him as a man of abounding sympathies, by con- 
ferring upon him the gold of friendship, the frank- 
incense of admiring reverence, the myrrh of deep 
and trustful affection. 

Dr. Neale was not a "son of thunder." He 
lacked the stormful energy of the reformer. His 
pastorate was distinguished by harmony and 
tranquility. During two great revivals, one of 
them conducted by Jacob Knapp, hundreds of 
people were received into the church, but after 
each of these ingatherings there was complaint of 
laxity and indifference. Though his heart was 
generously open and responsive to all forms of 
evangelizing agency, the tendencies of his own 
nature were toward quiet individual effort. Except 
in the case of these two sweeping revivals, the 
number of baptisms was always small. 

One reason for the declining fortunes of the 
church was to be found in the location of the 
meeting-house. In the twenty-five years since it 
was first occupied important changes had marked 
the section of the city in which it stood. Families 
were constantly moving farther away. Hanover 
street had become a business centre. The con- 
gregations steadily decreased. At last the members 
resolved to risk a change. Land was purchased on 
Somerset street and a handsome edifice was 
erected. On January n, 1855, the new house was 



88 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

dedicated, and for twenty- three years thereafter 
the people of the First Church made the summit 
of Beacon Hill the centre of their spiritual energies. 

On the afternoon of Wednesday the 7th of June, 
1865, a goodly company of people might have 
been seen wending their way up Beacon Hill from 
various quarters of the city. The day was "balmy 
and delightful, one of those perfect days which 
come only in the month of June," inspiring love 
of life, inviting youth to dream of coming joys and 
age to linger over sweet memories of the past. As 
the congregation gathered the tones of the organ 
pealed forth their joyous welcome. "The sanc- 
tuary was decorated with flowers and evergreens and 
the national banners. The names of the pastors 
were arranged, in the order of their pastorates, on 
the front of the galleries, the pulpit and the organ- 
loft," "festooned with oaken wreaths." 

At the appointed time the speakers took their 
seats on the platform, Dr. Hague and Dr. Wayland, 
former pastors, Dr. Cushman, Rev. Phineas Stowe, 
Dr. Wm. Randolph, Dr. D. C. Eddy and Dr. Neale. 
The historical address was delivered by the Pastor. 
In the audience that day, as it was a week-day, 
were the pastors and many members of other 
Baptist churches, professors and students from 
Newton, the venerable Dr. Jenks, nearly ninety 
years of age, and Father Cleveland, then fast 
approaching his full century of life. This historical 
service was followed by a social festival in the even- 
ing, which closed the brief but profoundly interest- 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 89 

ing celebration of the two hundredth anniversary 
of the founding of the Church. 

Few who were present then are with us today. 
Only one of the officers of church or society is still 
in active service, our greatly loved and honored 
brother, Erastus B. Badger. Uniting with the 
church in May, 1852, Mr. Badger has been in con- 
stant fellowship with its life and work for sixty-three 
years. He is our oldest living male member, yet 
his heart is full of the eternal youth of the spirit. 
In hope and courage and faith he is our pattern 
and exemplar. Mrs. Eliza J. Furber, who is also 
present to-day, is our very oldest living member, 
having united with the church in April, 1852. We 
rejoice in her sweet and gracious presence amongst 
us, and pray that the choicest benedictions of the 
Spirit may rest upon her. There are seven mem- 
bers of this church remaining of the hundreds who 
were present at the Anniversary fifty years ago — 
Mr. Badger, Deacon Curtis, Deacon Foster, Mr. 
Grubb, General Miles, Mrs. Furber and Mrs. Jar- 
vis. May our Heavenly Father grant them yet 
many years of health and joy! Wise counsellors! 
Noble friends! 

During the dreadful years of the Civil War, when 
distractions and evils abounded, the good judgment 
and devotion of the Pastor guided securely and well 
the affairs of the church. The location, however, 
was found to be far less strategic than had been 
expected. The outlook became less and less hope- 
ful. In 1844 the membership had been 754. 
Thirty years later the numbers had dwindled to 344, 



90 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

although the intervening years covered a period of 
expansion and progress for other Baptist churches 
in the city. A committee of investigation reported 
that only 113 members could be relied on to attend 
divine service, forty-one males and seventy- two 
females. The situation was one of the most serious 
that the church had ever faced. The solution of 
the problem was found in another migration, in- 
volving a union of the First Church with the Shaw- 
mut Avenue Church. The latter was a wideawake 
body, more than 500 in number, and conducting a 
vigorous mission which is now the Ruggles Street 
Church. The united congregations took the name 
of the First Church and occupied the meeting-house 
on Shawmut Avenue, holding their initial Sabbath 
service in that edifice on June 3, 1877, just thirty- 
eight years ago. So dawned a distinctly new era 
in the varied experiences of this venerable body. 

Two days before, on June 1, 1877, the long and 
honorable pastorate of Dr. Neale had closed. He 
died two years later. He left a great company of 
friends and admirers. He had stamped the im- 
press of his strong and gracious personality upon 
the entire community. He had held the church 
together during many trying times and had guided 
its destinies with tact and discretion. 

The church has had eminent men amongst its 
ministers through all its past history. The records 
and references present them before us, as without 
exception men of the highest character, irreproach- 
able in their integrity, and holding the full respect 
of the entire community. 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 9 1 

The dauntless Goold; the devout Russell; the 
staunch and faithful Ellis Callender and his gifted 
son Elisha Callender; the excellent Condy; the 
powerful Stillman ; the eloquent Clay ; the charming 
Winchell; the scholarly Wayland; the practical 
Grosvenor; the brilliant Hague; the noble and 
kindly Neale — these men wrought well for Christ 
and His cause, for the church of their care, and for 
the city wherein they labored. And the later 
pastors, who still live amongst us, the able Crane, 
the versatile Moxom, the vigorous Wood, the 
genial Rowley have been wise leaders in the things 
of the Kingdom of God. 

The people have stood by their leaders in worthy 
co-operation, as appears from the fact that the 
average length of pastorate, during the two hundred 
and fifty years, has been between thirteen and 
fourteen years. 

The Church in Our Own Times 

The pastorate of Rev. Cephas B. Crane, though 
short, was memorable. The church had worshipped 
for one hundred and fifty years on Salem street, for 
twenty-five years on Hanover street, for twenty- 
three years on Somerset street and for five years on 
Shawmut avenue. Then another change occurred. 
In the midst of the beautiful Back Bay region a 
magnificent building, which had been occupied by 
the Brattle Street (Unitarian) Society, was offered 
for sale under foreclosure of mortgage. After due 
deliberation and largely as a result of the conse- 
crated energy of two great laymen, Lansing Millis 



92 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

and J. W. Converse, the First Baptist Church pur- 
chased the property, bought the land adjoining 
and erected thereon a handsome Chapel, and on 
October 29, 1882, entered its new home and dedi- 
cated it with solemn ceremonies to the service of 
Almighty God. 

For thirty- three years, a full generation, as men 
count time, this stately structure has welcomed its 
happy worshippers. The Pastor whose energy and 
wisdom brought the people to this place is still 
living. We rejoice in him and thank God for his 
consecrated efforts. 

He was succeeded in the pastorate by Rev. 
Phillip S. Moxom, D.D., whose name and fame, as 
litterateur, critic and publicist, are widely known. 
His preaching was scholarly and thoughtful. Dur- 
ing his pastorate of eight years, 191 members were 
received into the church. 

In June, 1894, Dr. Nathan E. Wood became the 
minister ; he served in that office until called to the 
presidency of the Newton Theological Institution 
in 1899. His leadership of the church was charac- 
terized by diligence, thrift and effectiveness. A 
spirit of evangelistic zeal was manifest, and many 
converts were baptized and received into fellow- 
ship. The "History of the First Baptist Church" 
is a worthy monument to his industry. The insti- 
tution of the Sunday evening musical services, to 
which the people of the city were attracted in large 
numbers, was due to his initiative. The benevolent 
and missionary contributions greatly increased. 

To the redoubtable laymen of the early years 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 93 

there have succeeded men of like faith, abundant 
in good works, generation after generation. The 
mention of the names of Philip Freeman, Prince 
Snow, Henry J. Howland, James Loring, Oliver 
Holden, Thomas Richardson, Cyrus Carpenter, 
Thomas P. Foster, Lansing Millis, J. D. K. Willis, 
William G. Harris, William E. Gutterson, J. W. 
Converse, D. C. Linscott, Irving 0. Whiting, Major 
Jones, Elisha James and Samuel N. Brown, to 
mention only a few of those who have passed to 
the spirit-land, remind us of the noble deeds and 
far-spreading influence of that splendid body of 
men who have toiled and endured "as seeing Him 
who is invisible/' 

So also the loyal women, who have exercised from 
the earliest days their gracious and effective minis- 
try. Though their names have seldom appeared 
in the more public enterprises they have wrought 
wonderfully in the Sunday-school, in the various 
benevolent and missionary enterprises, and in 
many philanthropic undertakings outside the 
church. 

Rev. Francis H. Rowley, D.D., was called to the 
pastorate in 1900 and continued in that relation 
for ten years. His successor began his ministry on 
June 1, four years ago. The recent history is so 
familiar to all of us that it is unnecessary at this 
time to recount its incidents. 

Elements of Growth and Power 

In closing this review let us seek to estimate the 
outstanding characteristics of this truly illustrious 



94 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

church, which, as Dr. Wood has said, "has made a 
history unsurpassed in interest by any other church 
in the New World," and by "its metropolitan 
position and its antiquity has been a conspicuous 
and an efficient actor in many and most stirring 
scenes, not only in colonial but in our whole 
American life." 

I . A spirit of unusual foresight and broadminded- 
ness has characterized the members. This is con- 
vincingly shown in the interest which they have 
taken in all educational and missionary movements. 

The people of the church in the early days were 
not trained in the schools. They were neither cul- 
tured nor erudite. They followed lowly occupa- 
tions. For a hundred years they were few in num- 
bers. They beat no drums and sounded no trump- 
ets before them in the streets of the city. They 
witnessed to the truth; they fought the good fight 
of faith ; but their tones and energies were those of 
Sparta, not of Athens. Yet these people desired for 
others the gifts and graces which had been denied 
to themselves. 

President Henry Dunster was a warm friend of 
Thomas Gould. But when the church was founded 
Dunster was dead and no man of college educa- 
tion was available for the pastorate, so the worthy 
Gould was chosen to that office. It is noteworthy 
that, at a later time, when it was found that a col- 
lege man, young Elisha Callendar, was about to 
enter the Baptist ministry, he was chosen at once 
by the people as their leader. 

In the records of the church, from its beginning 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 95 

until now, there appears nowhere a single line or 
sentence which calls in question the importance of 
a liberal education. The whole attitude of the 
church and its ministry has been cordially favora- 
ble to all the influences of culture. This is the 
more remarkable when we consider how many 
Baptist churches, in different parts of our country, 
have even until recently been sceptical concerning 
the value of mental training and the tendencies of 
so-called secular education. Indeed a great body 
of our people, located chiefly in other parts of the 
land, set themselves solidly and for a lengthy period 
against colleges, Sunday-schools, an educated min- 
istry, a salaried ministry and all forms of mission- 
ary enterprise. 

Largely through the advocacy of the members of 
this church, led by the noble Samuel Stillman, there 
was formed the Northern Baptist Education Soci- 
ety, whose object was to aid worthy but indigent 
young men in their effort to obtain a theological 
training. By the agency of this organization hun- 
dreds of students have been enabled to procure the 
large advantages which otherwise would have been 
denied them, and to go forth into the fields of op- 
portunity with a splendid equipment for the sacred 
tasks of the Gospel ministry. 

In the founding and nurture of the Newton The- 
ological Institution the leadership of this church 
was again most significant. It has also been in 
close relations with Brown University during the 
entire history of that great educational foundation 
from its inception in 1764. 



96 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

2. Along with the spirit of healthy broad-minded- 
ness and keen interest in educational projects there 
has been manifest a strictness, an insistence on 
careful Christian living, which has preserved the 
integrity of the body. Liberty and liberality have 
never been allowed to degenerate into lax indul- 
gence. The discipline of the church was well pre- 
served through trying and perilous periods. 

There is clearly observable in the manuscript 
records a zeal for sound doctrine, not at the expense 
of the Spirit but as a correct interpretation of the 
life of the Spirit. Again and again one notes the 
faithfulness with which members were interviewed 
and labored with, who had been charmed by the 
siren-call] of new and strange beliefs. They were 
particularly insistent that their pastors should be 
evangelical. The Second Church was formed by 
seceeding members from the First Church as a 
protest against the alleged heterodoxy of Mr. Condy. 
Those who stayed by the elder body, constituting 
the great majority of the members, were probably 
quite as zealous for sound doctrine as those who 
withdrew, but they had full confidence in the the- 
ological integrity of their pastor. 

While Francis Wayland was preaching for a few 
Sundays as a candidate two of the deacons called 
upon him and asked many personal and pointed 
questions concerning his views of Christian doc- 
trine and his attitude toward the work of the min- 
istry. How much better to forestall any possible 
trouble by making these frank enquiries before a 
call to the pastorate was extended than to risk 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 97 

divisions and scandals through the blind choice of 
an unknown young preacher, on the basis of his 
personal charm or the pleasant impression produced 
by a few public discourses. 

Not less firm was the method of dealing with 
moral delinquencies. Evidences of a subtle spiritual 
decline were seen in the neglect of church priv- 
ileges. Cases of continued absence from Com- 
munion or public worship were promptly considered. 
In every such case a committee, consisting usually 
of one or two deacons and one or two members was 
appointed to visit the offender, to seek to bring 
him — or quite as often to bring her — to a better 
frame of mind. If this committee reported un- 
favorably, the recalcitrant was summoned before 
the church and publicly questioned. When more 
serious evils emerged and immorality was discov- 
ered, severe measures were taken, for the inner 
purity of the church was exalted. In one such in- 
stance a man was excluded from fellowship, but 
thirteen years later was again received, upon con- 
trite confession of his sin. He became in still later 
years, by his generous labors and gifts, a stalwart 
supporter of the cause of religion in the city. 

These Baptists showed the same zeal for church 
order, the same hatred of laxity, the same enmity 
against sin, that the Puritan Fathers possessed; 
but the records show a Christ-like gentleness and 
forbearance which their sterner brethren of the 
Standing Order did not frequently evince. No 
attempt at compulsion of conscience, no harsh ef- 
fort to exact an unwilling conformity, is ever for 



98 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

one moment to be found. The means used to se- 
cure the reclamation and future fidelity of errant 
members were not fines or imprisonment, the thrust 
of harsh words or the bludgeon of bitter condemna- 
tion. The church in all such cases resorted to 
prayer and kindly rebuke, while opportunity was 
always given for friendly conference with some wise 
committee carefully chosen. Persistent neglect of 
covenanted obligations was punished by exclusion, 
but such extreme measure was not adopted until 
every possible chance had been given for frank con- 
fession, and when guilt was not clearly proven, the 
grace of Christian charity was exercised. 

3. The church has possessed the spirit of over- 
flowing sympathy. The needs of the poor and the 
afflicted have seldom or never been forgotten. A 
member of the church has lost his house by fire; 
measures are immediately forthcoming for tangible 
aid to his need. A member reports that a minister 
"down on the Cape" has suffered a similar loss and 
all his books have been burned ; an offering is taken 
to enable him to buy a new library. Three separ- 
ate times disastrous fires in the city of Boston call 
forth a large and noble response. The sum of $460 
is contributed to the poor and distressed people of 
Rhode Island, driven from their homes by the 
British troops. A collection is taken for yellow- 
fever sufferers in Philadelphia. Cases of sickness 
and poverty are constantly being met by generous 
gifts. The widows of members are the especial 
care of the Church. The records simply abound in 
such instances of compassionate ministration. 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 99 

4. It is almost superfluous to say that the spirit 
of loyalty has been a characteristic of this church 
from the beginning until now. It owes its very 
existence to the elemental loyalties of its founders. 
They were true to Jesus Christ, to His revealed 
Word, to the voice of the Spirit, to the deep-rooted 
convictions of their souls. They were true to the 
mighty principle of spiritual freedom. 

They have always been loyal to their country 
and its interests. Members of this church bore 
arms in the Indian War, in the War of the Revolu- 
tion, in the War for the Union. They have fought 
for the flag; they have loved their native land; 
they have been good citizens. 

They have been loyal to their pastors and to each 
other. Except in the turbulent period succeeding 
the War for Independence, when drunkenness and 
debauchery were rampant, and even the churches 
were injuriously affected, they have had few in- 
ternal difficulties. They have been from the first, 
and are still, a family church; a body of men and 
women redeemed by Jesus Christ, bound to each 
other by cords of living love; a company of people 
definitely interested in each other's welfare, and 
eager to promote unitedly the progress of the King- 
dom. Their loyalty to their pastors has constantly 
expressed itself in generous gifts, kindly attentions 
and affectionate offices. One of the deacons of a 
neighboring church recently emphasized this fact 
in a statement that "the First Church has always 
been actuated by a beautiful spirit of harmony 
and a devoted attachment to its pastors." 



100 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

5. Besides all this it may be added that the 
church has been thoroughly evangelical and wisely 
conservative. It has never hurried feverishly after 
new things. It has avoided sensationalism. Per- 
haps to the outsider it has seemed a little stiff, a 
trifle slow, and somewhat unresponsive. Yet these 
faults lie on the surface. The deeper waters have 
been clear, pure and refreshing. The church has 
held quietly but very strongly to the fundamentals 
of the faith. It has been willing to adopt any sane 
methods of work which looked toward Christly ef- 
fort. Its conservatism has not been that of weak- 
ness but of power. 

The Covenant of Promise 

So the record runs! Few churches have faced 
so many opportunities for tremendously effective 
service in the cause of the Kingdom of God. Few 
churches have been so valiant and responsive to the 
call of that opportunity. This church has borne 
many burdens. It has weathered many heavy 
storms. It has wrought mightily for the King of 
Kings. The line of its life has gone forth into all 
the earth. 

Vigorous churches, splendid Societies, great In- 
stitutions, influential religious journals, owe their 
very life to the care and consecration of its min- 
isters and members. But the greatest work of this 
old church lies just ahead. We reverently thank 
God for His manifold mercies through all the years of 
the past. But the mercies of our God are not lim- 
ited or confined; they are "from everlasting to 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 10 F 

everlasting, to them that love Him." To-day this 
church is strong and resourceful. I believe that its 
men and women are ready for to-morrow's task. 
They are united in heart and purpose. The spirit 
of love and good-will permeates the entire body. 
For this also we thank God and take courage ! 

How shall we triumph in the days to come? Tell 
me! Is there a guide, a path, a talisman? Yes! 
Seest thou the Star? Where does it stay its course? 
Above the town of Bethlehem. Who rests there? 
Jesus, the holy Child ! 

Seest thou the Cross? Where have they planted 
it? Upon the Hill of Calvary. Who suffers there? 
The Saviour of the world ! 

Seest thou the Tomb? Where is that sepulchre 
of death? In Joseph's Garden. But the stone is 
rolled away; and the Redeemer walks, all radiant, 
amongst the springing flowers ! 

O Babe of Bethlehem, Redeemer, Risen and 
Victorious Lord, in the light of Thy love the Old 
First Church has lived and conquered. In Thy 
Name, in Thine alone, we will go forward ! Behold 
O Lord, we rise, and follow Thee ! 



102 SPECIAL MUSICAL SERVICE 

Sunday, June 6, 3.30 p. m. 

SPECIAL MUSICAL SERVICE 

Selections from Haydn's "Creation," by solo 
singers and chorus, under the direction of Mr. 
James D. D. Comey, organist. 

PROGRAMME 
Haydn's "Creation" 
Organ Introduction — Representation of Chaos 

Recitative — In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth 
and the earth was without form and void ; and darkness was upon the 
face of the deep. 

Chorus — And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 
Responsive Reading (All rising) 

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament show- 
eth His handiwork. 

Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth 
knowledge. 

There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. 
Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to 
the end of the world. In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun; 
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and re- 
joiceth as a strong man to run a race. 

His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit 
unto the ends of it; and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. 
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. 
Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with 
singing. 

Know ye that the Lord He is God; it is He that hath made us, 
and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His 
pasture. 

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with 
praise; be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. 

For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth 
endureth to all generations. 




INTERIOR VIEW OF CHURCH 



PROGRAMME 103 

The Lord's Prayer (All rising) 

Recitative — And God made the firmament, and divided the waters 
which were under the firmament from the waters which were above 
the firmament; and it was so. 

Now furious storms tempestuous rage, 
Like chaff, by the winds impelled are the clouds, 
By sudden fire the sky is inflamed, 
And awful thunders are rolling on high. 

Now from the floods in steam ascend reviving showers of rain, 
The dreary, wasteful hail, the light and flaky snow. 
Solo and Chorus — The marv'llous work behold amaz'd 
The glorious hierarchy of heaven ; 
And to th' ethereal vaults resound 
The praise of God and of the second day. 
Scripture Reading 

Recitative — And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be 
gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear; and it 
was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of 
the waters called he seas; and God saw that it was good. 
Air — Rolling in foaming billows, 

Uplifted, roars the boisterous sea, 
Mountains and rocks now emerge, 
Their tops among the clouds ascend 
Through th' open plains, outstretching wide, 
In serpent error rivers flow, 
Softly purling, glides on 
Through silent vales the limpid brook. 
Recitative — And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb 
yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose 
seed is in itself upon the earth; and it was so. 
Air — With verdure clad the fields appear, 
Delightful to the ravish'd sense; 
By flowers sweet and gay 
Enhanced is the charming sight 
Here fragrant herbs their odors shed; 
Here shoots the healing plant, 
With copious fruit the expanded boughs are hung; 
In leafy arches twine the shady groves; 
O'er lofty hills majestic forests wave. 
Recitative — And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of 
heaven to divide the day from the night; and to give light upon the 
earth; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for 



104 PROGRAMME 

years. He made the stars also. In splendor bright is rising now the 
sun, and darts his rays; a joyful happy spouse, a giant proud and glad 
to run his measur'd course. With softer beams and milder light, 
steps on the silver moon through silent night. The space immense 
of th' azure sky a countless host of radiant orbs adorns. And the 
sons of God announced the fourth day, in song divine, proclaiming 
thus His power. 

Chorus — The heavens are telling the glory of God, the wonder of 
.his work displays the firmament. 

/Prayer 

Recitative — And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly 
the moving creature that hath life and fowl that may fly above the 
'earth in the open firmament of heaven. 

Air — On mighty pens uplifted soars the eagle aloft, and cleaves the 
*sky in swifter flight to the blazing sun. His welcome bids to morn 
the merry lark; and cooing calls the tender dove his mate. From 
every bush and grove resound the nightingale's delightful notes; no 
grief affected yet her breast, nor to a mournful tale were tuned her 
soft enchanting lays. 

Recitative — And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living 
creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the 
earth after his kind. 

Straight opening her fertile womb, 

The earth obey'd the word, 

And teem'd creatures numberless, 

In perfect forms, and fully grown. 

Cheerful, roaring, stands the tawny lion. 
With sudden leap 

The flexible tiger appears. The nimble stag 

Bears up his branching head. With flying mane, 

And fiery look, impatient neighs the noble steed, 

The cattle in herds, already seek their food 

On fields and meadows green 

And o'er the ground, as plants are spread 

The fleecy, meek, and bleating flocks 

Unnumber'd as the sands in swarms arose 

The hosts of insects. In long dimension 

Creeps, with sinuous trace, the worm. 
Air — Now heaven in fullest glory shone; 

Earth smil'd in all her rich attire; 

The room of air with fowl is filled; 



PROGRAMME 105 

The water swell'd by shoals of fish; 
By heavy beasts the ground is trod; 
But all the work was not complete; 
There wanted yet that wondrous being, 
That, grateful, should God's power admire, 
With heart and voice His goodness praise. 
Recitative — And God created man in His own image, in the image 
of God created He him. Male and female created He them. 

He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became 
a living soul. 

Air — In native worth and honor clad, 

With beauty, courage, strength adorn'd 
Erect, with front serene he stands 
A man, the lord and king of nature all. 
His large and arched brow sublime 
Of wisdom deep declares the seat! 
And in his eye with brightness shine 
The soul, the breath and image of his God. 
With fondness leans upon his breast 
The partner for him form'd, 
A woman, fair and graceful spouse 
Her softly smiling virgin looks, 
Of flow'ry spring the mirror, 
Bespeak him love, and joy, and bliss. 
Chorus — Achieved is the glorious work; 

The Lord beholds it, and is pleased, 
In lofty strains let us rejoice, 
Our song let be the praise of God. 
Trio — On Thee each living soul awaits, 

From Thee, O Lord, all seek their food. 
Thou openest Thy hand, 
And all are filled with good. 
But when Thy face, O Lord, is hid, 
With sudden terror they are struck. 
Thou tak'st their breath away, 
They vanish into dust. 
Thou sendest forth Thy breath again, 
And life with vigor fresh returns; 
Revived earth unfolds new strength 
And new delights. 
Chorus — Achieved is the glorious work. 
Prayer, Response and Benediction. 



106 ADDRESS ON THE BAPTIST MINISTRY 

The Choir. 
Miss Margaret K. Alexander, Miss Eva Wessells, 

Mrs. Jeannie C. Follett, Mr. Arthur Hackett, 

Miss Marguerite Mcintosh, Mr. Harry Hopkins, 

Miss Marguerite Morse Mr. James Rattigan, 

Mrs. Marcia West Lewis, Mr. Arthur F. Tucker, 

Miss Reese, Mr. George A. Bunton, 

Mrs. Grace Bonner Williams, Mr. Henry Chequer, 

Miss Florence Jepperson, Dr. George R. Clark, 

Mrs. Bertha P. Dudley, Mr. Herbert Y. Follett, 

Miss Marguerite Harding, Mr. L. B. Merrill, 

Mrs. Josephine Martin Wakefield, Mr. R. C. Whitten. 

Mr. James D. D. Comey, Organist and Director. 
Solos sung by Miss Alexander, Mrs. Follett, Mrs. Williams, and 
Messrs. Hackett, Rattigan, Chequer, Clark and Merrill. 



Sunday, June 6, 8 p. m. 

ADDRESS ON THE BAPTIST MINISTRY 

President George E. Horr, D.D., LL.D., of the 
Newton Theological Institution 

Though this is not the first Baptist church to be 
organized in New England, naturally the church 
situated in the capital city of this region has had a 
profound and far reaching influence upon the whole 
development of the Baptists in this section; and 
since Western New York and the whole region west- 
ward to the Pacific Coast has been in part settled by 
New Englanders, with New England's outlook and 
traditions, the lines of this church have gone out 
into all our country. 

A man does not reach maturity without develop- 
ing a certain well defined character. An institution 
does not survive for a century or two without build- 



ADDRESS ON THE BAPTIST MINISTRY 107 

ing up a certain type of life. It comes to have its own 
point of view, and its potent traditions. A college 
or a church comes to have its own distinctive charac- 
ter, quite as marked as that of an individual man. 

This church, now celebrating its two hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary, conforms to this general 
law. One could not attend its services for many 
weeks together, engage in its activities and share its 
social life and be unaware of its distinctive atmos- 
phere and spirit. Indeed, this genius of a church, 
so impalpable and ethereal, is one of its most effec- 
tive powers for good or evil. It is like the temper of 
a home, that you feel as you cross its threshold or 
sit at its table. In one home the spirit of querulous- 
ness and criticism finds expression even in the voices 
of the children; in another, courtesy, consideration 
for others, and self-sacrifice for the common good are 
like the delicate perfume of roses through all the 
countryside in June. 

Knowledge of the common life of this church, 
almost from my boyhood, owing to the fact that 
two near relatives of mine have been among its 
deacons, enables me to bear witness to the thor- 
oughly Christian temper of its life. And beyond 
any individual experience, an evidence of this is the 
success here of that difficult experiment — union 
with another body. For some reason or other has it 
always been exceedingly difficult to unite two 
Baptist organizations. Our history is strewn with 
the wrecks of attempts of this sort. The circum- 
stance that the First Church and the Shawmut Ave- 
nue were united in a marriage that has been contin- 



108 ADDRESS ON THE BAPTIST MINISTRY 

uously happy shows that on both sides the attitude 
and temper conformed to the best Christian ideals. 

I am, however, to say a few words upon a topic 
narrower than the general type of church life mani- 
fested here. It is true that like priest, like people. 
It is also true that like people, like priest. A given 
religious leader may powerfully influence the organ- 
ization of which he is head. That, however, re- 
quires a man of unusual personality and initiative. 
But the influence of an organization upon its leader, 
of a church upon a pastor, the power of tradition, 
is always acting, and only the very strongest man 
can effectively resist its silent, continuous energy. 

It is of interest, therefore, to inquire, what has 
been the characteristic influence of this church upon 
its own ministry, and mediately upon the ministry 
of our denomination? What type of Baptist min- 
ister on the whole has this church contributed to 
produce? It seems to me that a study of the rec- 
ords of this church enables us to answer this ques- 
tion with tolerable definiteness. 

(I) The first pastors of this church were not 
technically educated men, but they were men of 
good attainments, marked personality, and strong 
convictions. A college diploma is only a tag, and 
goods that are not tagged may be up to standard. 
But this church has never disparaged education 
and it made its first decided impress on the life of 
this city during the ministry of Elisha Callender, 
the Harvard graduate, at whose ordination both 
Increase Mather and Cotton Mather officiated. 

The two ministers who held the longest pastorates 



ADDRESS ON THE BAPTIST MINISTRY 109 

were men of kindred types. Probably the most dis- 
tinguished pastor of this church was Samuel Still- 
man ( 1 764-1 807). Dr. Stillman received an ex- 
cellent training under private instruction, and was 
a Harvard M. A. in 1761, a Doctor of Divinity and 
Fellow of Brown University. Under Dr. Stillman's 
ministry, this church became a potent force in the 
city. In 1770 Dr. Stillman preached the annual 
sermon before the Ancient and Honorable Artillery 
Company in Boston. In 1779 he was the first 
Baptist to preach the annual election sermon, and 
in 1789 was chosen by the town of Boston to deliver 
the annual oration on the Fourth of July. The 
place that Dr. Stillman held in the life of New Eng- 
land is shown by the fact that his speech to the 
Federal Convention of Massachusetts, called in 
1787 to consider the adoption of the Constitution 
of the United States, to which he was a delegate, is 
admitted by Massachusetts historians to have been 
one of the determinative forces which brought this 
state into the Union. 

I mention these things to indicate the type of 
minister that, on the one hand, formed the corpo- 
rate life of this church and, on the other hand, was 
formed by it. Francis Wayland, Jr. (1821-26), 
subsequently president of Brown University ; Rollin 
H. Neale, (1837-77); Cephas B. Crane, (1878-84); 
Philip S. Moxom (1885-93); Nathan E. Wood 
{1894-99); Francis H. Rowley (1900-11); and 
Austen K. de Blois were all of this type. Tech- 
nical scholarship, that fitted them for the profes- 
sor's chair, was not the leading characteristic of 



110 ADDRESS ON THE BAPTIST MINISTRY 

most of them, though all were men of solid attain- 
ments, but they had sound common sense, capacity 
for leadership, gifts of public speech, and a vital 
experience of divine grace. 

In a way, these are the distinctive marks of the 
American Baptist pulpit. You see them in Thomas 
Baldwin, Henry Jackson, Hezekiah Chase, Lucius 
Bolles and Baron Stow in New England; Spencer 
H. Cone and Thomas Armitage in New York; 
Richard Fuller in Baltimore and Richard Furman 
in South Carolina. These men conformed to the 
type that this church set and honored. 

(II) Another characteristic of the ministry set 
by the life of this church is seen in the far-ranging 
activities and interests of its pastors. The list of 
Baptist enterprises that trace their initial impulse 
largely to the life of this church suggests a most 
impressive chapter in American Baptist history. 
The three men to whom is due the principal credit 
for the founding of Brown University are James 
Manning, the first president of the college ; Hezekiah 
Smith, and the pastor of this church, Samuel Still- 
man. Stillman's is the second name among the 
trustees in the Act of Incorporation, and the next 
year he was elected a Fellow — a post which he filled 
for the rest of his life. 

We can hardly overestimate the service the or- 
ganization of the Warren Association in 1767 ren- 
dered the Baptist cause. It bound the weak and 
scattered churches of the faith in New England into 
a unity that enabled them to act together, in pro- 
moting the causes of education and missions and in 



ADDRESS ON THE BAPTIST MINISTRY III 

resisting the persecutions of the Standing Order. 
This church was represented at the first meeting of 
the Association and at the second meeting, Septem- 
ber 13, 1768, became a full member of it. 

The Massachusetts Baptist Mission Society, organ- 
ized in 1802, was the first missionary society among 
Baptists in America. Its aim was to spread the 
gospel in this country and to evangelize the whole 
world. Out of it grew logically and historically our 
Foreign Mission Society, our Home Mission Society, 
and our Publication Society. The call for the meet- 
ing which organized this society is signed by six 
persons. Samuel Stillman heads the list. The 
second name is that of Thomas Baldwin, and of 
the four others two were deacons of this church. 

In founding the Northern Baptist Education 
Society, the pastor of this church was the leader 
and the chairman of the Society, while the Newton 
Theological Institution, which, with Brown Uni- 
versity, has been the principal educational force 
among New England Baptists and has sent out a 
great company of trained ministers, missionaries 
and educators, was organized in the vestry of this 
church and the pastor, Francis Wayland, Jr., sub- 
sequently president of Brown University, was a 
leader in the movement. Indeed, Mr. Wayland 
was elected as the first professor of Pastoral Theol- 
ogy at Newton. 

Of course, these were formative times. The half 
century from 1775 to 1825 is the seed plot of Ameri- 
can religious institutions, and this church from its 
location was in relation with all these movements, 



112 ADDRESS ON THE BAPTIST MINISTRY 

but it must not be imagined that any one of these 
enterprises came of itself and failed to meet its due 
measure of opposition. Brown University and the 
Warren Association and the Newton Seminary all 
had opponents. The great majority of Baptists 
did not believe in education, and many thought 
that co-operation with sister churches would destroy 
independency and bring back the Pope of Rome, or 
Archbishop Laud, or a Presbyterian rule, which was 
simply priesthood writ large. 

It is greatly to the credit of this company of 
Baptists here in Boston that they responded to the 
leadership of men of real insight and vision. They 
saw large things. They believed in the future of the 
United States, which through their great pastor 
they had helped to bring into being, and they be- 
lieved in the church of God. 

And I do not overstate in saying that all the pas- 
tors of this church have shared this vision. They 
have not been weak and inefficient men. They have 
differed in gifts and graces, but one note marks them 
all. According to the measure of their power, they 
believed in the Kingdom of God, and any movement 
that promised to extend that Kingdom in the whole 
wide earth enlisted their enthusiastic service. 

(Ill) Another characteristic of the ministry of 
this church has been its loyalty to the Evangelical 
Gospel. I do not mean by this that all of the pas- 
tors here have been of one theological type. Dr. 
Stillman was a fairly high Calvinist. Mr. Condy 
was suspected of Arminianism, and if we were to 
bring together the living ex-pastors of this church, 



ADDRESS ON THE BAPTIST MINISTRY 113 

it is quite possible that we might not find between 
them entire unity on some theological points. 

I do not mean that all the pastors of this school 
have repeated the same shibboleths, or occupied an 
identical point of view, but I do mean that they 
have all preached the Evangelical Gospel as they 
understood it, and preached it with power and with 
results. 

One is constantly asked what are the essentials 
of the Evangelical message. The question may be 
answered in many ways. For myself, I like to say 
that the Evangelical message centres about three 
positions: That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, his- 
torically lived here on the earth ; secondly, that by 
His Resurrection from the dead, He is alive now; 
and thirdly, that every human being may come 
into personal relationship with Him, experience His 
redeeming power and fellowship, and share His 
destiny. That is what Evangelical Christianity 
means to me, and in this large and true sense this 
pulpit has been thoroughly loyal to the Christianity 
of Christ. 

As I have sought to sketch hurriedly the common 
traits of the ministry of this church, I think you 
must have been aware that quite unintentionally I 
have been drawing the picture of the typical Bap- 
tist minister of the United States. We should 
recognize him anywhere. He is not primarily a 
scholar, least of all a pedant, though his scholarship 
is competent, and he need not be abashed in any 
company of intelligent men, but he is primarily a 
man of good parts, of sound judgment, and of a 



114 ADDRESS ON THE BAPTIST MINISTRY 

deep inner experience of the faith he preaches. In 
the second place, he is a man of broad sympathies 
for every enterprise that promises to advance the 
interests of the Kingdom of God — education, mis- 
sions, philanthropies, local and world wide evangel- 
ism. And in the third place, he is loyal to the 
Evangelical Gospel. 

These admirable characteristics of the ministry 
of this church are not solely due to the inherent 
qualities of the men who have served. The church 
itself has in part made its own ministry, and by its 
response to such leadership as I have indicated, has 
encouraged and developed the characteristics that 
corresponded to its own inner life. 

In Dr. Wisner's History of the Old South Church 
there occurs this paragraph : 

"This congregation (the Old South) was diminishing 
in numbers. All the religious interests of the Society 
were visibly and rapidly declining. The enemy was 
coming in like a flood. And now again did the Spirit of 
the Lord lift up a standard against him. In the fall of 
1803 God was pleased to pour out His Spirit on the 
Baptist churches of this town, and grant them a precious 
revival of religion which continued with power above 
a year. A number of this and other Congregational 
churches frequented the meetings of the Baptists. . . . 
Thus a reviving influence was brought into this con- 
gregation which for a time had to struggle for existence, 
but has, by the grace of God, continued even until now 
(1830), and rendered this again a flourishing vine." — 
Wood, pp. 295-6. 

This paragraph is simply a representative in- 
stance of the effect of the Evangelical message of 



BAPTISTS AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS II5 

this church through its entire history. There have 
been many times of discouragement and depression. 
The temper of the life of this city from the first has 
never been thoroughly sympathetic with the Bap- 
tists. They have constantly been overshadowed 
by bodies who had a vast advantage in culture, 
wealth, and social position, but this church and 
those that sprung from it have commanded public 
respect, and they have made contributions to the 
other churches and to the religious life of the city 
that are typified in the paragraph from the histo- 
rian of the Old South I have just quoted. 

The vine that took root here two hundred and 
fifty years ago was of the Lord's own planting. 
The little flock was one for which the Lord had 
prepared a kingdom. 

THE BAPTISTS AND EDUCATIONAL 
PROGRESS 

President William H. P. Faunce, D.D., LL.D., 
of Brown University 

Last October we were celebrating in Providence 
the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Brown 
University. We had five wonderful October days. 
I shall never forget the winding of the long proces- 
sions under the branching elms of College Hill, the 
inspiring music, the gleaming of many-colored 
hoods, the presence of many friends from near and 
far. It was a great and worthy celebration. But 
Brown is juvenile beside this church. A century 
before we began, almost as far back as the time 



Il6 BAPTISTS AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 

when Roger Williams was steering his bark towards 
Providence, this church went forth out of the theo- 
cratic commonwealth of Massachusetts, out of 
social approval, like Abraham, not knowing whither 
it went. The wonder to me is that a church should 
survive for two and a half centuries when founded 
on a purely independent basis. This church was 
not endowed. Several colleges were founded before 
the Revolution in America. But every one of them 
was endowed. But this church through most of its 
history has had no support at all outside of itself. 
Its own strength has sustained it; its support has 
come from within. And the succession of godly 
helpers and leaders has never failed throughout 
these long decades. That is something that I can- 
not help wondering over and thanking God for. 

But if we should meet the founders of this church 
to-night, should we find ourselves at home with 
them? Should we find ourselves speaking the same 
vocabulary, sharing the same ideas, holding the 
same understanding of the Gospel? In some re- 
spects, yes. In other respects, surely we may hope 
that we have advanced beyond our fathers. 

We should find ourselves at one with the founders 
of this church, if we could talk with them, in affirm- 
ing the spirituality of the Christian Church. We 
bear perpetual witness that the Church is a spiritual 
body. We affirm the access of every soul to God, 
and of all souls equally. If architecture is "frozen 
music," church architecture may be called con- 
gealed theology. In most of the churches of 
Europe the chancel and the nave are divided by a 



BAPTISTS AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 117 

rood, or screen. Behind it are the priests; outside 
are the laity. But such a building would be impos- 
sible here, because of our fundamental faith that 
the Spirit of God comes directly from Him to man. 

We are also at one with our fathers in affirming 
that the Bible is the supreme channel through which 
the impulse of primitive Christianity comes to the 
modern world. I would like to affirm with all my 
power that the Bible, instead of being left behind 
in the evolution of Christianity, is more truly than 
ever the mainspring in the development of Chris- 
tianity to-day. 

The founders of this church were not educated 
men, Yet they were Bible students, and the Bible 
is the most profoundly educative force in the world. 
Millions of men have learned to read in order that 
they might read the Bible. Through Bible study 
they have been taken out of the twentieth century 
into the first, out of the Occident into the Orient j 
and they have been led to face the problems of life 
in forms of thought and speech worked out by men 
in far distant ages. Whoever reads the Bible finds 
that he is studying geography, Oriental manners 
and customs, codes of law, magnificent orations, 
beautiful songs, and the unsurpassed and unsur- 
passable words of our Lord Himself. To become 
acquainted with that literature is to pass through 
an educational experience. And therefore I believe 
that this church will ever stand with its founders 
in putting the Bible at the head of its educational 
programme and its Christian endeavor. 

But there are two or three respects in which we 



Il8 BAPTISTS AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 

should find that the years have borne us onward 
beyond the founders of this church. We have some 
differences of emphasis, some divergencies in point 
of view. For one thing, we are more intent on 
sounding the ethical note in presenting the Christian 
faith than some of the fathers were used to be. To 
us, the Christian life is not an escape from an evil 
world, but a reconstruction of the world through 
co-operation with God. To us, Creation was not 
^finished six thousand years ago, or one hundred 
thousand years ago. It is a process now going on, 
an which each of us may have a part. To us, God's 
not only "in His heaven," but He is in His world, 
and He is continually recreating it in new forms of 
beauty and power. The world is still in the making 
and it is the privilege of every son of God to assist 
in changing the "is" into the "ought to be." 

Men sometimes tell us that the sense of sin has 
died out in the modern world. If you mean the 
sense of the impending wrath of an offended Deity 
then I grant you that the sense of sin has greatly 
weakened in the last few generations. But, the 
sense of sin in its deeper meaning has increased in 
the present generations in a very remarkable way. 
The sense of corporate sin, municipal sin, social sin 
has become more poignant and compelling than 
ever before in American history. That same sense 
of social responsibility is found to-day in college 
life. When I call upon a college student who is 
going wrong, if I try to apply the old prudential 
motives, I find they produce no effect. If I tell 
him, "You are ruining your health and hurting 



BAPTISTS AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS II9 

your future," he is not very deeply impressed. But 
if I say to him, "You are breaking the heart of those 
who love you best ; you are staining the family name ; 
you are handing down polluted blood to those who 
shall come after you " — I have yet to see any young 
man who does not respond to that altruistic appeal, 
even though he is unmoved by the older prudential 
motive. 

When the city of Nineveh was convicted of sin, 
it put on sackcloth and ashes and held a fast for 
forty days. When Pittsburgh was convicted of 
municipal and corporate sin, it appointed a munici- 
pal commission to clean up the city and erect model 
tenements, close up the saloons, and abolish Sunday 
labor. That, we may be sure, was a more sensible 
and acceptable kind of repentance. 

Again, I think that we have passed a few steps at 
least beyond the fathers in our emphasizing of 
Christian education. Education by the church was 
not so necessary formerly as it is to-day, because all 
education was directly religious. Not long since I 
was reading a copy of the first New England Primer, 
I found it immensely interesting. Together with 
the alphabet, the early New England child learned 
that "In Adam's fall, We sinned all," and the 
beginning of his education was filled with Puritan 
theology. In these days all that has passed. The 
public school has come. It cannot assume the 
place of a religious teacher. We do not want it to 
do so. Therefore to-day the function of the church 
in education is vastly more important than it has 
ever been before. The ministry of the church must 



120 BAPTISTS AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 

be a teaching ministry. It is always hard to do 
right, but it is harder to-day than ever to know what 
the right is. The people need help in the solution 
of the problems of right and wrong that they face 
every day. A teaching ministry that shall endeavor 
to expound the duties and rights of the individual 
and the state is one of the deepest needs of our 
church to-day. And to produce such a teaching 
ministry we must establish and maintain our Chris- 
tian schools. 

We need no more colleges in New England, or 
even in the eastern states. We need more sympa- 
thetic support of those we have. I wonder if I 
may ask the Christian laymen here to-night how 
long it has been since they have taken the hand of 
some school-teacher, or college professor, and said: 
"God bless you, we believe in your effort"? I am 
not speaking of offering financial aid ; I am speaking 
of the friendly human side. If every man and 
woman in this church would go once this year to 
some school and say to the teachers, "We believe 
in the work you are doing," it would be just as 
truly worth while as any financial help. Where 
you have no educational institutions, you cannot 
have leaders, and if you want leadership you must 
establish institutions in which native gifts shall be 
trained under Christian auspices for the service of 
the church. 

One thing more: We differ from our fathers in 
that we have what Principal Fairbairn calls "a new 
feeling for Christ." We have no more devotion to 
Christ than our fathers had — happy is it for us if 



BAPTISTS AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 121 

we have as much. But they thought of him in his 
official and forensic relations. My father's library 
contained no lives of Christ, save one by Samuel T. 
Andrews. There were plenty of tomes on theology, 
learned doctrinal treatises. But scarcely a true 
life of Christ had then been written. Since then 
how many lives have been published ! There are a 
multitude in all languages. Men have been asking 
"What did He think about the family? about the 
state? about our duty towards the government? 
What did He think about the duty of parents to 
children? What did He think about the life be- 
yond?" We have come to have a personal feeling 
for Christ as a friend and brother. This study of 
the life of our Lord has brought Him home to us as 
a living personality, as an elder brother. Thus we 
understand Jesus of Nazareth far better than did 
our fathers. But we and they together kneel before 
a common Lord — their Master and ours. In Him 
past and present are united. To Him we who to- 
day look back with gratitude and forward with 
hope — to Him pledge ourselves in life and in death. 



122 BAPTIST GROWTH AND ACHIEVEMENT 

Monday, June f, at 10.30 a. m. 
BAPTIST GROWTH AND ACHIEVEMENT 

Rev. J. F. Vickert, D.D., Pastor of First Baptist 
Church, Providence, R. I., presiding. 

The devotional exercises, conducted by Rev. 
C. E. Sawtelle, President of Baptists Ministers 
Conference of Boston, were opened with the reading 
of the 1 6th Chapter of Matthew. Mr. Sawtelle 
then led in prayer: 

Almighty God, our dear Heavenly Father, we 
come unto Thee this morning for Thy blessing 
upon us. We come into Thy presence reverently. 
Thou art holy, Thou art righteous, Thou art perfect 
in all Thy ways. Thy thoughts are above our 
thoughts. Thy ways are above our ways. We 
come to acknowledge to Thee Thy goodness toward 
us and toward all the children of men. We come 
to worship Thee. We thank Thee that Thy spirit 
has ever gone out towards the hearts of men, con- 
victing them of sin and leading them toward the 
Lord. We thank Thee that Thou didst send Christ, 
our Lord, to redeem us. We bless Thee for His 
teaching, His inspiring example, His friendliness 
and helpfulness, that He gave His life for us and 
that through His death we find forgiveness of sins 
and the life that is from above. We bless Thee for 
the church which He founded and for its growth. 
We thank Thee for all those of whatever name who 
have acknowledged and do acknowledge Jesus as 



BAPTIST GROWTH AND ACHIEVEMENT 1 23 

Lord and seek to advance His name. We thank 
Thee for our own denomination which we love. 
We thank Thee for the love of liberty which it has 
always had, for its influence upon this nation and 
upon the nations of the world. And now, as we 
are gathered here this morning in this sacred and 
historic place, we pray that Thy blessing may be 
upon this church. While we look back over these 
two hundred and fifty years, long to us, to Thee 
but as a day that is past, we see the great advance 
made in the world, notwithstanding there are things 
which for the moment almost shake our faith. Yet 
we see that more people have been won over to 
Jesus, we see what is perhaps a larger interpretation 
of Thy Word in the wonderful ideal of social service, 
we see the growth of education and of missions, and 
as we see these things, may we feel that we simply 
desire to work together with God, and as we realize 
that it has taken time for the advance of these 
reforms, may we be patient and content to labor 
day by day faithfully in our place. Bless this 
church, bless its pastor and every member, bless 
the ministers who are gathered here this morning, 
accepting hospitality of the church. We thank 
Thee for the privilege of proclaiming the glad tidings 
of yesterday. We thank Thee for Thy Kingdom 
and that Thou hast called us into Thy Kingdom. 
Bless the duty which is before us, and let us labor 
not with our faces turned into the yesterdays, but 
toward the present and the future. Guide the 
President of these United States and strengthen 
him in this trying time. Help us to solve all the 



124 BAPTIST GROWTH AND ACHIEVEMENT 

great national problems that are ours in the spirit 
of Christ. We pray for all the nations of the world, 
for troubled Mexico, and for the nations of Europe. 
We pray that somehow, in a way that we cannot 
see, peace may soon follow war. May Thy King- 
dom come, Thy will be done on earth as in Heaven. 
May the day come when all the kingdoms of this 
world shall have become the kingdom of our Lord, 
Jesus Christ. We ask it in His name. Amen. 

Hymn No. 71-1 "Oh, worship the King, all 
glorious above. " 

Dr. Vickert: I count it both a privilege and an 
honor to be invited to preside at this service this 
morning, and to have this share in this anniversary. 
I count it a privilege also to be permitted to extend 
to the First Church in Boston the cordial greetings 
of the First Church in Providence, and the hearty 
congratulations of that church upon your long and 
fruitful history, and to extend to the First Church 
in Boston the sincere good wishes and hopes of the 
First Church in Providence, that this church may 
go on through all the years to come increasing in 
fruitfulness and advancing from strength to strength. 
I am very happy as I look at the topics that are 
announced for this morning's service. It seems to 
me particularly appropriate that, in connection 
with this celebration, topics of this character should 
be considered, because they suggest the vital con- 
nection between the past, the present and the 
future. We speak sometimes of a date past, but 
there is no such thing as a date past. The past 



BAPTIST GROWTH AND ACHIEVEMENT 125 

lives in to-day and projects itself forward into the 
future. Every man is in some sense the sum of his 
yesterdays and every institution is a product in 
part at least of the years of its history. We are 
thinking during this celebration very much of the 
past. But the past is something more than a 
memory, something more than a heritage in which 
we glory — though there is much in it in which we 
may glory justly — something more than an accumu- 
lation of traditions to bind and fetter action in the 
present and future. We have been reminded that 
past happenings are guiding lights which cast their 
illumination forward into the future and we should 
know the past fully in order to understand how to 
go wisely in the present or plan intelligently for the 
future. But these topics which are to be discussed 
this morning bring before us things which have 
held a place all through the past, which hold a place 
in the life of this church and all our churches to-day, 
and will hold a place in the life of this church and 
all our churches throughout the future. The 
history of our church is not merely a matter of years, 
but is a vital thing of life and spirit and action. 

Dr. Vickert here introduced Rev. W. W. Everts 
who spoke as follows: 



126 THE MOTHER OF CHURCHES 

THE FIRST CHURCH AS THE MOTHER OF 
CHURCHES 

This church as organized in 1665, was the first 
Baptist church in the Massachusetts Bay colony, 
and was mother of the churches formed in that 
territory. These were Newbury and Kittery, or- 
ganized in 1682 with fifteen members each, Sutton 
in 1735 with ten members, South Brimfield or 
Wales in 1736 with eight members, Leicester in 
1736 with eight, Bellingham in 1737 with thirteen 
members, and Springfield in 1740 with nineteen 
members, all baptized first into the fellowship of 
this church. Candidates from Newbury and Kit- 
tery came to Boston to be baptized. Elisha Cal- 
lender went to Marshfield and baptized fifteen, 
though no church was planted there until 1783. 
He visited Springfield several times on the same 
errand, as Jeremiah Condy went later to Bellingham. 
In other places besides Marshfield there were mem- 
bers of this church long before a church was or- 
ganized. Mr. and Mrs. Willard lived in Newton 
and belonged to this church fifty years before the 
church was organized there in 1780. Eben Mason 
of Medfield was baptized in 1746 but there was no 
church there for thirty years. There were thirty- 
four members of the church living in Woburn, some 
having been founders of this church, but there was 
no church organized there until 1781. Members 
came over from Charles town for more than a 
hundred years until Oliver Holden, author of 



THE MOTHER OF CHURCHES 1 27 

"Coronation," one of our members, built a meeting 
house and organized a church in 1801. 

The earliest churches that went out from this 
one in 1682 were short-lived. It is not known why 
Newbury did not persevere longer than seven 
years. There was no trouble with their doctrinal 
sentiments as they were expressed in this petition to 
the general court: 

"May it please you to take notice of some grievances 
of many of the people of God in this country, because 
of the strictness and straitening of that Christian liberty 
which we think ought to be allowed unto all Christians 
holding the fundamentals and walking orderly, though 
of different persuasions, namely to worship God according 
to their own judgment and conscience without being 
restrained to the judgments of others by human laws. 
A principal end of this plantation is that liberty of con- 
science may be here enjoyed. We hope therefore it will 
be no grief of mind to you to consider of it and to repeal 
such laws as are a hindrance or restraint in any respect 
to ye children of God either in their joining together in 
church fellowship or exercising in the ordinances of God 
according to the pure Gospel rule. Christian liberty 
allowed we believe will tend much to the glory of God 
in the peace and settlement of His people here." 

The Kittery church did not yield its sentiments. 
It simply moved bodily to Charleston, South 
Carolina, and became the first Baptist church 
organized in the South. William Screven, the 
pastor, had been arrested, fined ten pounds, im- 
prisoned, and forbidden to preach in Kittery or 
elsewhere in the province, but, like Peter and 



128 THE MOTHER OF CHURCHES 

John under similar threats, he kept on preaching. 
Finally he was taken to the court at York. There 
he was released on his promise to emigrate at his 
convenience. He improved the respite given him 
by sending for Elder Hull to come and organize the 
church. Next year, in 1683, he was summoned to 
court again to explain his prolonged stay in Kittery. 
The trial was set for June 1784, but ere that time, 
pastor and people had sailed for South Carolina 
with a covenant which they preferred to that made 
aboard the Mayflower. 

The first Baptist church in this state to be or- 
ganized in the eighteenth century was gathered at 
Rehoboth in the year 1732, by John Comer, a 
member of this church. He started with fifteen 
members but soon made the number ninety. He 
had been converted after the terrible fever epidemic 
which visited Boston in the year 1721 and claimed 
800 victims, and nearly claimed him. He was a 
faithful attendant of the Congregational Church 
in Cambridge while he was pursuing his studies at 
Harvard when Ephraim Craft put "Stennett on 
Baptism" into his hands. He gathered materials 
for a history of Baptists in America, materials that 
came into the possession of Isaac Backus. 

Mrs. Rachel Scammon of that church migrated 
to Stratham, N. H., and sought by word of mouth 
to spread Baptist sentiments. In this she failed 
for in forty years she had made but one convert. 
However, she tried a more successful method. 
Coming across a copy of "Norcross on Baptism," 
she journeyed to Boston on purpose to have it 



THE MOTHER OF CHURCHES 1 29 

reprinted. That did not prove to be necessary as 
she found ioo copies of the book in stock. These 
she bought and at once distributed among her 
neighbors in Stratham. Dr. Samuel Shepherd of 
Brentwood, visiting a patient at Stratham, picked 
up a copy. In the year 1770 he was immersed and 
became pastor at Brentwood, a church that soon had 
ten branches and 1,000 members. 

Three years after Rehoboth, in 1735, a church 
was organized at Sutton. Benjamin Marsh, James 
Bound and William King, members of this church, 
living in Danvers, were among the founders of the 
town of Sutton. Benjamin Marsh became pastor 
of the church and remained at its head for forty 
years. Some of its members came from Leicester. 
At the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of 
Leicester church, Dr. H. C. Estes remarked, "No 
record remains on earth to tell what names were 
attached to the covenant signed at Sutton in 1735, 
nor shall we know until we see the names written 
in heaven.' ' It is not necessary to wait so long for 
this information. The clerk of this church can 
give the names of the eighteen persons who signed 
that covenant. 

The church in Greenville, Leicester, became in- 
dependent in 1738, and, like the church in Sutton, 
chose one of its members pastor and kept him 
in that position for thirty-five years. This was 
Thomas Green. He inherited his Baptist princi- 
ples, for his grandmother was Rose Dunster, sister 
of the first president of Harvard College, who sur- 
rendered his office rather than betray his convic- 



130 THE MOTHER OF CHURCHES 

tions. Young Green came to Leicester when it 
was a wilderness, driving his father's cattle from 
Maiden. Left alone with the cattle, while his 
father returned to Maiden for the rest of the family, 
the youth was stricken down with a fever, but he 
succeeded in tethering a calf to a tree and as the 
calf was fed so was he. By accident two fugitive 
buccaneers, who were surgeons, sought shelter in 
his father's house and they repaid their benefactor 
by teaching his young son the arts of medicine and 
surgery. In time Thomas Green became the most 
noted physician in Western Massachusetts. More 
than a hundred doctors were proud to call them- 
selves pupils of Doctor Green. With his lands and 
his extensive practice he was able to build a church 
for his flock. He was not satisfied with Leicester 
as a field for the practice either of medicine or of 
religion, and as he healed bodies so he prescribed 
for souls far and wide and baptized in all more 
than a thousand converts. Many of his descend- 
ants were medical men. Thomas Green, who 
founded the library at Worcester, S. S. Green who 
taught many years at Brown, and Andrew H. 
Green, comptroller and organizer of Greater New 
York, were proud to bear his name. "He set the 
candlestick at Leicester," and, as A. H. Green said 
at the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the 
church, "may he perish who would with sacrilegious 
hand extinguish its light." Benjamin Foster, an- 
other member of our church, succeeded Thomas 
Green in the pastorate. Foster was studying at 
Yale when he was given the difficult task of de- 



THE MOTHER OF CHURCHES I3I 

fending infant baptism. The result of this thought- 
less demand was the same with Foster as it was 
with Horatio Balch Hackett at Andover seventy- 
five years later. Foster was a Hebrew scholar, 
wrote a commentary on the seventy weeks of "Dan- 
iel," received the Doctorate, and settled in New 
York City as pastor of the First Baptist church, 
where he ended a service of ten years by remaining 
faithfully at his post during the yellow fever epi- 
demic of 1798. Out of Leicester went Grafton in 
1767 and the prosperous branch at Harvard in 
1775. At Holden in 1786 Pastor Foster baptized 
two young men, Sylvester Haynes and Abel Woods, 
who attained honorable positions in the service of 
the denomination. 

The next church to be organized was recognized 
in 1736 at Wales, or, as it was then known, South 
Brimfield. The pastor, Eben Moulton, went to 
Sturbridge on a preaching tour in 1749, when he 
was arrested and locked up as a vagabond. But 
this treatment proved an excellent advertisement, 
for next year he baptized eleven and soon forty- 
nine more who were gathered into church relations 
at once. The eleven had been New Lights or Sep- 
arates, and came over in a body with their pastor, 
John Blunt. The little company had to suffer for 
their faith, for the assessors distrained a spinning 
wheel, a saddle, a cow and a steer, the property of 
Elder Blunt, and a trammel, an andiron, shovel 
and tongs and a heifer belonging to another. Pot 
hooks, a broad axe and saw, five pewter plates, a 
yoke of oxen and a flock of geese were taken from 
10 



132 THE MOTHER OF CHURCHES 

others for the support of the standing order. Like 
other churches that came over from "New Lights," 
it was some years before this mixed body at Stur- 
bridge became regular and abandoned its "ruling 
elders" and the practice of "open communion." 

Besides Sturbridge in 1750, South Brimfield set 
up in 18 1 7 churches at Southbridge, Holland and 
Brookfield, for it was "a fruitful bough, a fruitful 
bough by a well whose branches ran over the wall." 

In 1737 the first church in Worcester County 
was started at Bellingham. Two years before the 
selectmen of Worcester had directed constables to 
warn one Thomas Green, his wife and family to 
depart their town. Worcester has since those days 
delighted to honor the names of descendants of 
him whom they contemptuously designated as one 
Thomas Green. Five of the leading men of Bel- 
lingham were furnished accommodations in the 
common jail at Worcester because, on their own 
admission, they were Anabaptists. As late as 
1795 there were only four Baptists living in the 
town and by 18 12 that number had been reduced 
to one, but he was Postmaster Wilson. He may 
be the person referred to in the story of Mrs. Cor- 
nell, who, coming from Providence, a Baptist cen- 
ter, inquired if there were any Baptists in Worces- 
ter. She was told that there was only one nest 
egg. "Then you may be sure that it will hatch," 
she said, "for I have never known one of them to 
be rotten." The postmaster sent for Baptist preach- 
ers from afar. One of them, Elder Bentley, came 
up from Tiverton, and held forth in a country school 



THE MOTHER OF CHURCHES 1 33 

house. Dr. Austin of the standing order, referred 
to the Baptists as "a sneaking set, who hovered 
about the suburbs, not daring to come into the 
centre." The next time Elder Bentley preached 
on the Common. Then Dr. Austin referred to 
"the audacity of the Baptists in approaching the 
droppings of the sanctuary." Dr. Austin ventured 
to quiz Elder Bentley at the close of a meeting and 
the following dialogue ensued. 

" Do you consider my church a church of Christ?" 
" I know nothing of your church." 
"Why, Mr. Bentley, do you not answer me?" 
"If you wish to know what I understand by the 
church of Christ, I will readily explain it to you. 
A church is an association of believers who receive 
baptism by immersion. Now, sir, if your church 
corresponds with this explanation, it is then in my 
opinion a church of Christ." 

"Do you believe me to be a minister of Christ?" 
"Were I to answer that question, sir, Solomon 
would call me a fool, for I never heard you preach, 
nor have I ever seen a sermon of yours, and Solo- 
mon says, 'he that answereth a matter before he 
heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.' How- 
ever, I hear that you preach sound doctrine." 

"Why didn't you call on me when you came to 
town?" 

"Because I was told that a Baptist minister 
called on you and was refused permission to preach 
in your pulpit." 

Wilson, who reports this colloquy, had an affect- 
ing interview with Dr. Austin a few years later. 



134 THE MOTHER OF CHURCHES 

The Doctor, with tears in his eyes, acknowledged 
the mistake he had made in condemning the little 
band of believers. 

The church at Bellingham, Worcester County, 
has the great distinction that its pastor, Noah 
Alden, baptized John Leland, the great evangelist, 
better known as the statesman who helped Madi- 
son carry Virginia for the constitution. He wrote 
his own epitaph to commemorate both his political 
and his religious aims. "Here lies the body of 
John Leland who labored to promote piety and to 
vindicate the civil and religious rights of man." 
Like Isaac Backus, he opposed the adoption of the 
constitution because it had no guarantee of religious 
liberty and he was running against Madison as 
delegate from Orange County to the Virginia Con- 
vention. Madison spent a day with him and re- 
moved his fears by promising that an amendment 
would be passed guaranteeing religious liberty. 
When the election was held, Leland withdrew his 
name and urged his friends to vote for Madison. 
The election in Orange County turned the scales 
and decided the vote of the state, and the vote of 
the state was the one needed to establish the con- 
stitution of the United States. But politics was 
only an incident in the life of Elder Leland. He 
led 1,200 rejoicing converts into the waters of bap- 
tism. His theology may be indicated by the re- 
mark of his friend, Governor Briggs — whether the 
sermon began at Genesis or at Revelation, it al- 
ways ended at the third chapter of John. The 



THE MOTHER OF CHURCHES 1 35 

church at Bellingham never was large, but it was 
great, for it sent forth John Leland. 

Nineteen members of our church were granted 
letters to form a church in West Springfield in the 
year 1740. One of them, Edward Upham, a Har- 
vard graduate, became their pastor and served 
them in that office in all sixteen years. One of the 
early members, Lieutenant Jonathan Worthington, 
was father of Colonel Worthington, whose bene- 
factions were so great as to lead the settlers to put 
his name on the map of the town of Worthington. 
The first Baptist in Medfield, a member of this 
church, was Eben Mason, ancestor of Lowell Mason, 
the musician. When the church was constituted 
in 1776, it called Thomas Gair, a member of this 
church, as pastor, and it was not long before the 
greater part of the wealth and intelligence of the 
town belonged to the Baptist society. Another 
distinguished pastor at Medfield was William Gam- 
mell, a member of this church, and father of Prof. 
William Gammell of Brown. With such pastors, 
Medfield church became a mother of churches at 
Dedham, Needham, Weston, West Medway and 
Wrentham. 

Hingham church is connected with ours in an 
interesting way. In 1823 Sister Barnes of Hing- 
ham visited Boston to interest the brethren in the 
struggling interest there. There was a factory for 
sale which might be made over into a church. After 
making fruitless calls and when about to return 
home discouraged, she happened to hear of Eben 
Shute, a prosperous member of this church, who 



I36 THE MOTHER OF CHURCHES 

received her cordially and commissioned her to buy 
the factory at his charges. 

It may not be generally known that when this 
church moved from Back Street to Hanover Street 
in 1829, the old building was cut in two and floated 
on scows across the harbor to South Boston where 
it now stands at the corner of Broadway and C 
streets, the edifice that once echoed the voice of 
the profound Wayland and the eloquent Stillman. 

It is acknowledged by all writers on the history 
of Park Street church that it started in the revival 
in Baptist churches in the years 1803-4. Eight of 
the nine Congregationalist churches had gone over 
to Unitarianism but the Baptists, with such shin- 
ing lights as Stillman and Baldwin, stood firm. 
A visit of God's spirit came to those churches which 
encouraged a little band of brethren in the Old 
South who were burdened and greatly desired to 
unite with the more revived brethren in a weekly 
evening lecture. This helpful movement was fa- 
vored by Dr. Eckley and the church, but was 
hindered and successfully opposed by the society. 
Defeated and disappointed, but with no thought of 
giving way, eight men of the church formed, in 1804, 
a society for mutual religious improvement. They 
were so feeble that for weeks only one of the eight 
dared to lead the meeting in prayer. In February, 
1809, twenty-six men and women formed a church 
but they had to go outside Boston to secure a coun- 
cil that would recognize them. Bitter hostility 
and crushing obloquy were their portion. The 
churches from whom they had a right to expect 



BAPTISTS AND SOCIAL SERVICE 1 37 

help in their budding enterprise were opposed to 
their plans. But, as we learn from the reports of 
Drs. Cox and Hobey, English Baptists who visited 
Boston a few years after Park Street Church was 
built, "a great proportion of the whole expense at- 
tending the erection of the imposing edifice was 
contributed by Baptists." 

Dr. Vickert : Baptists have always been trouble- 
some folk. Wherever they have appeared in 
history, they have been disturbers of the peace. 
Their agitation and their endeavors, however, have 
not been meaningless and purposeless, for I am 
proud to believe to-day that they have always 
looked in the direction of better things, religiously, 
intellectually, socially. The Baptists spring from 
the common people and they never get very far 
away from the common people, and throughout 
their history they have been identified with the 
interests and the welfare of the common people. 
Their history in this regard suggests that there are 
yet greater things before them. Their history 
and their principles equip them, as I believe no 
other denomination is equipped, for social service. 
We are told that intellectual freedom and religious 
freedom and political freedom have been achieve- 
ments of other centuries, but that social and indus- 
trial freedom and equality are to be achievements 
of the twentieth century, and in that achievement 
Baptists surely ought to have a worthy share. It is 
very fitting that we should discuss this morning the 
subject of Baptists and Social Service, and that it 



I38 BAPTISTS AND SOCIAL SERVICE 

should be discussed by a Baptist who has given 
himself so energetically and unreservedly to social 
service as the Honorable George W. Coleman, Pres- 
ident of the Boston City Council. 



BAPTISTS AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
Hon. George W. Coleman 

When it was suggested that the three speakers 
this morning would be obliged to confine their 
subject matter, covering a period of two hundred 
and fifty years, to a space of less than half an hour 
each, Dr. Mabie at my side suggested that we 
could easily do that by asking leave to print. 
That reminded me that the only manuscript I 
have for this occasion is one I read here in this 
church, I think, four years ago, on the occasion of 
the Centennial of the Boston Association of Baptist 
Churches. I would like to say to you, confiden- 
tially, if there is anything that I omit under this 
necessity of condensation which should appro- 
priately be within the compass of such an address 
as this, I refer you to that manuscript which, 
together with all the other manuscripts of that 
occasion, is published in a book which never was 
printed. So scarce indeed is that edition that I 
was unable myself to get even one copy from which 
to draw inspiration for this occasion. 

As a topic, social service covering two hundred 
and fifty years would seem to be almost an anomaly, 
for social service in the strict meaning of the term, 



BAPTISTS AND SOCIAL SERVICE 1 39 

as I understand it, in its relation to church life, is 
hardly more than a dozen years of age ; yet there is 
a sense in which social service may be regarded as 
being as old as Christianity itself, for in the very 
beginning there were those who were set apart to do 
for the widow and the poor and the sick. And in 
the very early history of this country, Baptists, 
through Roger Williams, contributed marvelously 
in the way of social service, in standing for the 
separation of church and state, and for civil and 
religious liberty. These contributions to social 
service seem limited and somewhat negative when 
brought into comparison with our ideas of social 
service to-day. For the service to the widow and 
the poor and the sick on the part of the early church 
was almost invariably and almost exclusively to 
those who were of the household of faith, who 
belonged to the same church communion. The 
idea of temporal relief for persons outside the faith 
did not seem to have occurred to them. Even the 
magnificent results that came from the separation 
of church and state were of a somewhat negative 
character, for the motive behind that great doctrine 
was not so much the salvation of the state and of 
society, as it was to preserve the purity of the 
church, to keep it untrammelled. 

However, although, strictly speaking, social serv- 
ice is only a dozen years of age, the roots of it 
reach far back into the past; just as the simple 
fact that Columbus discovered America in 1492 
may be briefly stated, but nevertheless requires in 
the full telling two splendid volumes by John Fiske 



140 BAPTISTS AND SOCIAL SERVICE 

tracing back for hundreds of years the movements 
that led up to that great event. There is another 
way in which Baptists have through the long past 
made a great contribution to the social thought of 
the present period, and that is in their democratic 
ideals, in their democratic form of church organiza- 
tion (perhaps the simplest and most potent form of 
democratic organization of religious life the world 
over), and in their devotion to the interests of the 
common people, their belief in the value of the com- 
mon man. It is by such means they have prepared 
the way for the ideal of social service that is arising 
to-day. 

There has been a discovery made within the last 
dozen years, and no doubt its beginning would run 
back much further than that, to the effect that the 
Gospel is not so simple as some would believe. 
There is a Gospel for the individual, and a Gospel 
for society and the state. We are beginning to 
understand that two men may be devoted Chris- 
tians and yet the relationship existing between them 
may be absolutely anti-Christian, entirely heathen. 
Consider those two men mentioned in the New 
Testament, Philemon and Onesimus, both of them 
devout Christians (Philemon, the master, and 
Onesimus, the slave) ; yet the relation between 
them, that of slavery, was anti-Christian, thor- 
oughly heathen. Although both had become Chris- 
tian men, the relationship between them needed to 
be Christianized just as much as they themselves 
needed it. The same is true of many relationships, 
social and economic. The relationship between the 



BAPTISTS AND SOCIAL SERVICE 141 

employer and the employe needs Christianizing. 
Think of the strikes in Lawrence, Mass., in Colo- 
rado, in Michigan; there were devoted Christian 
men on both sides, but the relationship between 
them was not a Christian one; it needed to be 
Christianized. The same is true of the relationship 
between the producer and the consumer. The 
products of the earth often are lying on the farm 
rotting because trade conditions are such that it 
does not pay to send them into the city to con- 
sumers who are starving for the lack of them. 
Likewise, the relationship between owner and 
tenant needs Christianizing as is easily seen where 
it becomes necessary for the owner to evict the 
tenant, no matter if it may be in the middle of win- 
ter and the tenant has nowhere to go but the side- 
walk. Surely, the relationship between owner and 
tenant needs to be Christianized as well as the 
hearts of the individual owner and individual 
tenant. Probably there is no man in this country 
who has done more to point out the necessity of 
Christianizing the relationships between men than 
that glorious Baptist, Prof. Walter Rauschenbusch, 
in his two remarkable books, " Christianity and 
the Social Crisis" and "Christianizing the Social 
Order." 

As we go back over the years of Boston Baptist 
history, we can find much that bears traces of social 
service, even beyond the twelve years that I have 
indicated. Recall Deacon Timothy Gilbert who 
bought a theatre on Tremont Street and turned it 
into a church — Tremont Temple — fitting it up 



142 BAPTISTS AND SOCIAL SERVICE 

with opera seats instead of church pews, in order 
that the stranger might be made more welcome, 
That was one of the efforts of the early Baptists in 
Boston to go outside the usual methods and reach 
certain elements in the community that the churches 
of that day were not serving as efficiently as they 
should. In the Harvard Street Baptist Church, a 
generation ago, there was instituted on Sunday 
afternoons a brilliant service of song and music to 
attract the young people. That was certainly a 
form of social service. It was done under the 
leadership and patronage of Daniel Sharp Ford. 
Our Baptist Bethel is another very early form of 
social service, in its ministry to sailors and foreign- 
ers. The Ruggles Street Baptist Church spent as 
much as $40,000 to $50,000 a year in ways dis- 
tinctly related to social service, in relief to the poor, 
maintaining an employment bureau, paying rent 
for the poor, doing a lot of things for the temporal 
welfare of the people. Such service was hardly 
dreamed of before Daniel Sharp Ford led the way, 
and to-day, in that same church, under the ministry 
of Rev. Gabriel R. Maguire, a wonderful service 
along social lines is being rendered. He has perhaps 
solved the difficult problem of unemployment better 
this winter than any other agency in the city. The 
First Church here has had a series of services of a 
musical and social character in recent years that 
has been most marked and distinct in its differentia- 
tion from the ordinary form of church service, and 
it has attracted and blessed a great many young 
people. 



BAPTISTS AND SOCIAL SERVICE I43 

There is the Boston Industrial Home — I don't 
know how old it is, thirty or forty years — founded 
by Dr. A. J. Gordon of the Clarendon Street Bap- 
tist Church. When social service, as we understand 
it, was unknown, his great heart reached out to the 
man who was in the city and temporarily out of 
work and out of funds, and so he founded the first 
Wayfarers' Lodge in the city of Boston. 

The Baptist Home in Cambridge for Aged People 
is another admirable form of social service in which 
Boston Baptists have made a good beginning. And 
our New England Baptist Hospital in Roxbury, 
Baptist in its burdens and universal in its blessings, 
recently so handsomely endowed by the late Mrs. 
Samuel N. Brown, is a wonderfully fine exhibit of 
modern social service at its best. 

We ought to mention also, as a form of social serv- 
ice, in a different way, perhaps, the interest that 
the Baptists have taken in education, and the 
establishment of Brown University and Newton 
Theological Institution, and Worcester Academy, 
in all of which Boston Baptists have had a leading 
share. We pass on to the other more distinct forms 
of social service, such as the Boston Baptist Social 
Union, now more than fifty years of age, the mother 
of many similar organizations in other cities and in 
other denominations, making a great contribution 
to the social side of religious life, and in more recent 
years splendidly supplemented by the Woman's 
Baptist Social Union of Boston. 

Out of the Boston Baptist Social Union, and out 
of the wonderfully progressive Christian thought 



144 BAPTISTS AND SOCIAL SERVICE 

of Daniel Sharp Ford have grown the Ford Building, 
Ford Hall, and the Sunday evening work there, 
including the ministry to foreigners, especially 
Russian Jews and Italians, hundreds of whom have 
come to look to Ford Hall as a beacon of light, the 
brightest spot in their lives, the Mecca of the whole 
week. Daniel Sharp Ford did not belong to this 
generation, he did not live in the days when the 
idea of social service had been developed, yet thirty 
years ago he was writing and speaking of the inevit- 
able conflict between employers and employes. 
Out of that thought of his has grown the Ford Hall 
Sunday Evening Meetings, now in their eighth 
year, known all over the country and ministering 
every Sunday night for six months of the year to a 
hall crowded to overflowing with the unchurched 
and the unshepherded. This winter in Ford Hall, 
on Sunday afternoons, there have been similar 
meetings conducted in the Italian language and 
with the hall overflowing with Italian men. 

While we are speaking of Baptist successes in the 
development of social ideas, we must remember 
the definite failure on the part not only of the Bap- 
tists, but, so far as I can learn, of every other 
denomination except the Roman Catholic, to hold 
down-town locations where the original church 
environment is completely changed because of the 
influx of another kind of people. We have not 
solved the problem, so far as the church is con- 
cerned, in its relation to foreigners as is shown in the 
abandonment of the field formerly occupied by the 
Bowdoin Square and Harvard Street churches. 



BAPTISTS AND SOCIAL SERVICE 1 45 

So much for the local field. In the larger field, 
Baptists have likewise been privileged to lead the 
way in social service. There are no greater names 
in social service literature to-day than Walter 
Rauschenbusch, Shailer Mathews, Samuel Zane 
Batten and Henry C. Vedder. They have led the 
thought and action of the country along social serv- 
ice lines in relation to the church. I think ours is 
the only denomination which is to-day supporting 
a secretary for social service exclusively. Other 
denominations have splendid men who are giving 
part of their time, but, so far as I know, we have 
the only secretary who is giving full time to the 
work. Mr. Ford had great fears as to the future, 
but he also had great faith, too. He believed that 
the principles of Jesus applied both to the employer 
and the employe, not only to individuals but to the 
relationships between them, and that they were 
sufficient for the solution of all the perplexing prob- 
lems of our modern society. 

I remember at one of the Ford Hall banquets a 
young Jewish brother, Sam Sackmary, was called 
on to respond to the toast "The Silent Gavel.* ' He 
spoke of the fact that the chairman of the Ford Hall 
Meeting had never had occasion to use a gavel and, 
said Mr. Sackmary: "I think it is because of the 
beautiful spirit that is engendered within these 
walls, the spirit of love, of kindness, of considera- 
tion and tolerance and mutual respect, of — well, 
in one word, for the lack of a better word — Chris- 
tianity." This testimony from an orthodox Jew 
well illustrates the spirit of Ford Hall. As I said, 



I46 BAPTISTS AND SOCIAL SERVICE 

1,200 Italians have been attending there this last 
season, Sunday afternoons, and we hope to conduct 
these meetings next winter, every other Sunday, 
for eight successive meetings. And we feel that our 
work in Ford Hall on Sunday evenings and Sunday 
afternoons has only just begun. 

One word in closing: Social service, as under- 
taken by Christian people, through church organiza- 
tion, is only another indication of the great change 
that is taking place in the emphasis that is put upon 
life now-a-days. We are changing the emphasis 
from competition to co-operation, the law of com- 
petition being every man for himself and the devil 
take the hindmost ; the law of co-operation disclosing 
that two men working together, for their common 
interest, can get more out of a given thing than two 
men working against each other. Social service 
is only another manifestation of this world-wide 
and fundamental change of emphasis that is taking 
place. Baptists are fitted by their beliefs, their 
traditions, their history, their form of organization, 
their closeness to the common people, and their 
democratic ideals, to take a powerful leadership in 
this line of work. 

Dr. Vickert next introduced Rev. Henry C. 
Mabie, D.D., who spoke on Baptists and Missions. 
The topic assigned to Dr. Mabie was very general, 
but in the interests of symmetrical presentation, for 
the occasion, he prepared an address upon the 
"Debt of Foreign Missions to the Baptists of 
Massachusetts." When Dr. Mabie's hour came 



FOREIGN MISSIONS 1 47 

for his address, he felt constrained to speak without 
a manuscript upon the broader theme. The paper 
Dr. Mabie had prepared, however, is here re- 
printed : 



THE DEBT OF FOREIGN MISSIONS TO 
THE BAPTISTS OF MASSACHUSETTS 

Henry C. Mabie, D.D. 

There is a body of factors connected with the 
early history of Massachusetts as well as with this 
parent church in particular, which sheds a signifi- 
cant light upon the development of American 
Baptist interest in foreign missions. 

I. The first was a capable ministry, a ministry 
which entertained a true doctrine of the extension 
of Christianity and which faithfully educated the 
churches in line with it. At the front stands the 
name of Dr. Samuel Stillman, for forty-two years 
pastor of this church. As a preacher he had few 
peers and no superiors in New England. His 
church was frequently attended by President 
Adams, Governor Hancock and men of like promi- 
nence. He was a model in all that goes to charac- 
terize a cultivated, sympathetic and able minister, 
and he was alive to all public questions. These he 
considered with great breadth of mind and he 
expounded the same with surpassing eloquence. 

After him came Dr. Thomas Baldwin, for thirty- 
six years pastor in this same city. He had occupied 
a foremost place in the formation of the M assa- 
il 



I48 FOREIGN MISSIONS 

chusetts Baptist Missionary Society, and was at the 
very front also in the formation of the Triennial 
Convention in 18 14, being its first recording secre- 
tary, and for several years he was chairman of its 
Board of Managers. For fourteen years he edited 
The Massachusetts Baptist Magazine. In 18 10 he 
published a series of letters intended to explain and 
vindicate the characteristic sentiments of the Bap- 
tists as a people — sentiments they felt bound to 
propagate everywhere among the heathen. These 
letters were in answer to strictures which had been 
published by the Rev. Samuel Worcester. The 
work was of so high rank that Andrew Fuller de- 
clared it to be the ablest discussion of the matters 
in controversy that he had ever read. 

Dr. Daniel Sharp also occupied a position not 
inferior to that of the two ministers just named. He 
was forty-one years pastor of Charles Street Church. 
He was a member of the Board of Overseers of 
Harvard College, from which also he, as well as 
from Brown University, received the degree of 
Doctor of Divinity. He was president of the Board 
of the General Triennial Convention, the first presi- 
dent of the Missionary Union, and for eighteen 
years president of the Board of Newton Theological 
Seminary. 

Dr. Lucius Bolles of Salem was a graduate of 
Brown University, and for twenty-two years pastor 
of the First Church of Salem, laying the foundation 
of our Baptist position in that historic city. In 
1 8 12 Dr. Bolles was the prime mover in organizing 
the Salem Bible Translation and Foreign Mission 



FOREIGN MISSIONS 149 

Society, which was really the first organized work 
for foreign missions undertaken by Baptists in this 
country. This society appropriated for several 
years money for the translation of the Scriptures in 
the hands of Carey and others in India. The 
Society held a corporate existence until about 1838 
or 1840, when it was formally disbanded. It was 
before this society, as well as before the Massa- 
chusetts Society a week earlier, that Dr. Francis 
Wayland, pastor of this church, preached his great 
sermon on "The Moral Dignity of the Missionary 
Enterprise," one of the noblest deliverances ever 
uttered on the subject. Dr. Bolles, in 1824, was 
elected as an assistant secretary to Dr. Staughton 
of the Triennial Convention, and in 1826, on the re- 
moval of the Board of that Convention to Boston, 
he became corresponding secretary, which office he 
held for sixteen years. He was a man of great 
patience, tact and prudence, and rendered service 
of great value until he died in 1844. 

Time would fail us to call the roll of the worthy 
men, pastors of Baptist churches and ministers of 
Jesus Christ, who have continued in this old Com- 
monwealth to build on the foundation laid by such 
men as those just referred to. Yet we cannot 
refrain from mentioning Joseph Grafton, Bela 
Jacobs, Jonathan Going, Howard Malcolm, Baron 
Stow, William Hague, Rollin H. Neale, Summer 
R. Mason, William Shailer, William Lamson, J. W. 
Parker, and A. J. Gordon. 

It is but right to point out concerning the char- 
acter of these earlier ministers that theologically 



150 FOREIGN MISSIONS 

they were far in advance of most men of the time 
in their own and other communions, who had fallen 
into the narrow views which characterized even the 
reformers respecting the missionary function of the 
church as related to the heathen. These ministers, 
while Calvinists of a moderate type, had also come 
en rapport with the theology of Andrew Fuller. 
This theology, while recognizing fully the divine 
sovereignty in shaping the epochs of all Christian 
liistory, was also alive to the responsibility involved 
in the matter of free will. They owned the obliga- 
tion of the church, in so far as it had become prac- 
ticable, to reach out in their truth and grace to the 
heathen of distant parts. By so doing, only, could 
they maintain the really Christian character of the 
churches at home. 

As Bible students, and, themselves, deeply expe- 
rienced in divine things, they had come to appre- 
ciate the great paradoxes of the Christian religion, 
without which true missions can never be under- 
stood. As Christians, they reached out to that 
which is far as the sure means of blessing that which 
is near; they saw that the apparent losing of life 
is the surest way to save it. That reflex blessing 
which immediately came upon the churches at 
home in their fellowship of sacrifice and sympathy 
with the imprisoned Judson in Burma, these fathers 
properly interpreted as a mere hint of the fullness 
of grace that would return upon the American 
churches if they would follow up the missionaries' 
work with larger sympathy, sacrifice missionaries 
and money. They were not the only ones indeed 



FOREIGN MISSIONS 151 

in these Atlantic States, from Boston to Savannah, 
to seize upon the devotion expressed in Judson's 
character and sufferings, but they were among the 
foremost to set to work actively to communicate 
their sympathetic fire to all the churches of this 
land. 

The truth is that the Baptist denomination in 
this country as a distinct evangelizing power leaped 
into a new position not before dreamed of, when it 
began to welcome the reflex influence upon itself 
of missions to the heathen. 

II. A second force which we notice at work in 
Massachusetts for a larger service upon the part 
of our people for the heathen, was the creation in 
1802 of the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary So- 
ciety. 

The General Massachusetts Society, organized in 
1802, filled a large place in the Providence of God 
in providing a soil into which later our more dis- 
tinctive foreign missionary society could strike 
deeply its roots. Indeed, the very men who be- 
came the first officers of the Society, issuing in the 
Missionary Union, were precisely the men who had 
been developed in connection with the Massachu- 
setts Society. As we have seen, they did not con- 
tent themselves simply with work in their Common- 
wealth, but they reached out into the then wild 
frontiers of Maine, Vermont, New York, Ohio, 
Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, and to portions of 
Canada and to North American Indians. 

I would particularly emphasize that this was a 
corporate effort of elect spirits for a common divine 



152 FOREIGN MISSIONS 

end. Not everyone participated in it. It was 
then, as it has ever been, that certain individual 
souls particularly filled with the spirit of Christ 
and the genius of His religion, felt impelled by a 
common impulse, and nothing could restrain the 
passion that was so moving them. They thus 
remind us of that New Testament morn of mission- 
ary initiative which took place in the church at 
Antioch. In this narrative, in Acts XIII :i~5, 
there are five persons, three only besides the two 
apostles, who were themselves commissioned to the 
new enterprise. They were certainly "prophets 
and elders," men with insight and fore-view away 
beyond that of the rank and file of the church as a 
whole; they are named as Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, 
together with Saul and Barnabas. These were the 
elect persons to whom the divine illumination came 
in connection with their peculiar ministry and fast- 
ing before God, and to these the Holy Ghost said: 
"Separate me Barnabas and Saul unto the work 
whereunto I have called them." And so it has 
ever been. For every advance movement in the 
Church of God, a few elect souls are first prepared 
and must long be depended on to lead the way. 
This is what the late Professor Warneck in his 
great "History of Missions" calls "the ecclesiola in 
ecclesia," on which all missions worthy of the name 
have always been called to depend. This Mission- 
ary Society of Massachusetts was such an ecclesiola. 
All the evidence we have respecting the genesis of 
that movement goes to show that they were 
"called-out" persons, organized not for mere self- 



FOREIGN MISSIONS 1 53 

existence, with more than a mere self-centred de- 
nominationalism to sustain; they were men of 
world-wide sympathies, because their sympathies 
were those of Christ. 

The thing that impresses me as I look back upon 
the Baldwins and Sharps of that time is that they 
were the natural successors of these prophets and 
teachers of Antioch. 

Out of such soil sprang all those expressions of 
Christian corporate activity which made possible 
New England's part in the work of the Triennial 
Convention, and which has preserved, in Boston, 
for so long a time the official seat of Northern 
Baptist foreign mission work, the highwater mark 
of her missionary zeal and devotion. 

III. A third factor of great moment was a capable 
leadership for officering the new movement. In 
the Kingdom of God leaders are born, not made. It 
has ever been so. Moses, a helpless infant, in 
jeopardy of instant death, is drawn from the Nile 
and eventually placed at the head of the emanci- 
pated nation. David was taken from the sheep- 
folds and made king of Israel. Out of fameless 
Nazareth comes according to the flesh even the 
world's Redeemer. The monk of Erfurt heads the 
Reformation. Carey, the cobbler, becomes in 
India more potent than the East India Company 
itself. A movement like that which has issued in 
the conspicuous triumphs of missionary work in 
the Far East during the last century, needed also 
unique leadership, and one divinely fitted. None 



154 FOREIGN MISSIONS 

would have presumed to elevate himself into the 
leadership of such a movement. 

Dr. Bolles, for years the secretary of the Foreign 
Mission Society, was one to the manor born, in all 
the tact, patience and skill with which he conducted 
the affairs of the office, so winning the confidence 
of the Triennial Convention that, long before the 
separation occurred between northern and southern 
Baptists, he was cheerfully accorded the confidence 
of all elements in the denomination, and on the 
removal of the Board to Boston, he long conducted 
the correspondence. 

I need not speak in detail of the work of the 
secretaries from Dr. Bolles on. I must mention, 
however, the names of Solomon Peck, Edward 
Bright, Robert E. Pattison, Jonah G. Warren, John 
N. Murdock and Samuel W. Duncan. Probably no 
man ever did more to give to the Foreign Mission 
Society a standing in the confidence and respect of 
the home churches than did Edward Bright; and it 
was a service magnificently maintained in unofficial 
relations for many years after he left the office and 
became editor of the New York Examiner. A man 
of more prophetic mould than Dr. Jonah G. Warren 
was never heard in our denominational councils. 
Some of us remember with what solemnity, on 
public occasions, he would recount to us the visions 
of the night or the convictions of the day that over- 
bore his soul. How his utterances came home to 
us! 

To Dr. John N. Murdock is probably due, more 
than to any other man, the formulation and prose- 



FOREIGN MISSIONS 1 55 

cution of that policy of the Foreign Missionary 
Society which has brought so largely into co-opera- 
tion the native agencies of heathen lands, and helped 
to render them efficient. 

The more recently sainted Samuel W. Duncan, 
although his service was cut short, is remembered 
by all as a product, whether considered as man, 
Christian, or administrator, as one who had been 
divinely moulded into the leading personality he 
was. The son of the Hon. James H. Duncan, 
among the foremost of the gifted laymen of Massa- 
chusetts, and nurtured in a home which was always 
a hospice to returned missionaries, his childhood 
memory was saturated with missionary sentiment, 
devotion and influence that in manhood impelled 
him to the large policies for the cause which char- 
acterized him. 

These men, although not all born in Massachu- 
setts, were men who had become impregnated with 
its balanced conservatism, its nobility of ideals, and 
its statesman-like habits of comprehension and 
execution. They were leaders for whom indeed 
we may be devoutly grateful to God, and upon the 
solid foundations laid by them we may wisely con- 
tinue to build. 

Nor should I fail to mention one conspicuous 
personage, who for fifteen consecutive years was 
elected president of the Foreign Mission Society, and 
whose influence was so great in impressing benevo- 
lence upon all who attended its public meetings, 
and who lent great dignity to the ideals for which 
the institution stood. I refer to Gov. George Nixon 



I56 FOREIGN MISSIONS 

Briggs, one of the noblest chief executives this 
Commonwealth ever had, and one of the bright- 
est ornaments of the denomination in the state; 
urbane in all his social and official relations, an 
executive of unswerving probity, of amiable dispo- 
sition, unpretentious yet courteous in bearing, easily 
approachable, he made friends everywhere, and, 
as one said of him, "lost them nowhere"; exposed 
to the multiform and subtle temptations of political 
life, he moved uncorrupted where others had fallen, 
and came out of every ordeal a better man, furnish- 
ing to the higher classes as well as to the lower an 
example of transparent Christian character. It was 
a great boon to the Missionary Union to have in 
Governor Briggs for fifteen consecutive years a 
presiding officer so able and distinguished. 

IV. A fourth respect in which foreign missions is 
indebted to the Baptists of Massachusetts, is for a 
body of uncommonly able and benevolent-minded 
laymen to support the cause. 

If the early ministry in the churches of the Com- 
monwealth was of rare quality and tone in leading 
the way in the establishment of the enterprise of 
missions to the heathen, this is not less true of a 
great body of laymen who were reared under the 
ministry which we have been describing. These 
laymen from the beginning have found a place upon 
the Board of Managers and upon important com- 
mittees, giving to the cause the benefit of their 
business judgment, their practical sagacity and 
their financial influence. Laymen successively, 
from Hon. Heman Lincoln, one of the early treas- 



FOREIGN MISSIONS 157 

urers of the Missionary Society, to the present 
incumbent of that office, have served as custodians 
of the funds with never a dollar of defalcation. 
Numberless generous contributors in Massachu- 
setts have been found in every period since the 
work began, who have led the entire country in 
the support of the work. In the first half of the 
century we recall such names as Ensign Lincoln, 
Nathaniel R. Cobb, Jonathan Bacheller, Levi Far- 
rell, Timothy Gilbert, Asa Wilbur, James H. Dun- 
can, George Kendall. 

In the second half we find enrolled the following: 
J. Warren Merrill, Gardner Colby, J. M. S. Williams, 
J. W. Converse, H. R. Glover, Chester W. Kingsley, 
Robert O. Fuller, C. T. Sampson, Daniel S. Ford, 
H. A. Pevear, George S. Dexter, S. G. Shipley, 
S. B. Thing, Hezekiah Chase, G. W. Chipman, 
S. N. Brown, Mial Davis, E. C. Fitz, L. B. Hub- 
bard, E. S. Wilkinson, George S. Harwood, and 
many others. 

While speaking of these notable laymen that have 
made strong our Baptist forces in Massachusetts, 
it is but just to include that organized body known 
as the Boston Baptist Social Union. This organ- 
ization was created at the instance of Hon. J. M. 
S. Williams of the First Church, Cambridge, an 
outstanding personality of his time. The insti- 
tution was intended to afford a forum before which 
great public interests, missionary, educational, phil- 
anthropic and social, might be fairly presented with 
the greatest economy of time and demand on the at- 
tention of the laymen and ministers of Massachusetts. 



I58 FOREIGN MISSIONS 

The result has been to develop among its constituents 
an ever-growing public spirit. No cause has ever 
had a larger and more hearty hearing than that of 
foreign missions. Moreover an esprit de corps has 
been created in the corporate life of this body which 
has often enabled it to move in a solid phalanx 
for jeoparded causes. Its influence, also, has gone 
far to preserve "the unity of the spirit" in all good 
works throughout Massachusetts. When financial 
emergencies have had to be met, or deficiencies 
made up, the brethren of this Union have repeatedly 
been leaders in securing some great accomplish- 
ment. Some of these, such as Jonathan Bacheller, 
Gardner Colby, J. Warren Merrill, C. T. Sampson, 
R. O. Fuller, E. C. Fitz, Chester W. Kingsley, 
Henry A. Pevear, and Daniel S. Ford, have been 
veritable pillars of support in the structure reared. 
Some of them served long periods upon the Execu- 
tive Board, lending toil and service beyond price, 
giving prudence to committees, and counsels and 
strength to the financial standing, without which 
the superb credit everywhere enjoyed in the money 
markets of the world would have been impossible. 
In the aggregate, out of a grand total of about 
$30,000,000 (embracing gifts up to the separation of 
North and South) received by our Treasurers since 
the beginning of the work in 18 14, the Baptists of 
Massachusetts, led by the princely men above re- 
ferred to, have contributed probably not less than 
five million dollars, or one-sixth of the entire amount. 
And, yet, taken as a whole, the Baptists of Massa- 
chusetts have never been a wealthy people. They 



FOREIGN MISSIONS 1 59 

have, however, been a thrifty, devoted, conscien- 
tious and benevolent people, favored with an un- 
commonly scriptural training to right conceptions 
of stewardship. They have been therefore, in a high 
degree, ready to make common cause in their prop- 
erty interests with the Kingdom of God. 

Gratefully, however, as we realize the regal nature 
of this giving of treasure, we cannot pass without 
reminding ourselves of a still more precious form 
of giving than that of money. I refer, of course, 
to the giving on the part of Massachusetts of her 
own sons and daughters to the work itself among 
the heathen. Upon scanning the records of mis- 
sionary appointees of the Foreign Mission Society, 
beginning with Adoniram Judson, gifts which alone 
have laid the whole world in debt to this Common- 
wealth, not less than fifty persons have gone out 
from our Massachusetts homes. 

V. Again, standing high among the agencies in 
Massachusetts to which foreign missions owe a 
lasting debt, is that school of the prophets, in which 
so many of our missionaries have received their 
theological and missionary training, viz., Newton 
Theological Institution. All the presidents and 
professors in that institution have been close coad- 
jutors with the executives of the Foreign Mission 
Society themselves in preparing for their work and 
sending forward on their way " worthily of God" 
missionary candidates, as well as in rearing succes- 
sive generations of mission-loving, mission-cultiva- 
ting pastors. The names of I rah Chase and Barnas 
Sears, of Henry J. Ripley and J. D. Knowles, of 



160 FOREIGN MISSIONS 

Horatio B. Hackett and Heman Lincoln, of Alvah 
Hovey, not omitting their living successors and 
their contemporary associates of that sacred hill, 
are embraced in the inner circle of co-workers on 
the broad fields of missionary enterprise. We find 
that about one hundred twenty-five graduates of 
Newton Seminary, besides fifteen young women 
who have taken courses of study there, have been 
appointed by the Foreign Mission Society and of 
these several have become heads of missionary col- 
leges or seminaries, and a much larger number have 
become translators of the Holy Scriptures, either in 
whole or in part. 

Among the educative influences which have 
sprung up on this soil, having a quite unique influ- 
ence upon the extension of missionary sentiment 
and conviction, and meriting special recognition, 
are the personality and writings of Rev. Samuel F. 
Smith, D.D. This highly prophetic man in the 
various spheres of pastor, editor, traveller among 
missions both of Asia and Europe, and author of 
numerous historical sketches and missionaryhymns, 
has laid the cause under a great obligation to the 
region in which he flourished. The service which 
in a peculiar providence Dr. Smith was enabled to 
render to the once forlorn hope of the Telugu 
mission was beyond measure. It is probable that 
his immortal hymn, 

11 Shine on, lone star, thy glories bright 
Shall flame through all the eastern sky." 

fit companion to "My Country, 'tis of Thee," did 
more than any other single writing of that period 



FOREIGN MISSIONS l6l 

in which the Lone Star Mission was trembling 
between life and death, to keep sentiment and 
courage for its continuance alive. The spirit- 
indited foresight and the poetic pen of Samuel F. 
Smith wrought with the companion faith and 
steadfastness of Lyman Jewett to give to that 
mission a new lease of life. Nor was this all that 
the chosen bard was giving in that vision. God 
was also meanwhile preparing him to devote his 
gifted son, Rev. D. A. W. Smith, D.D., now presi- 
dent of the Theological Seminary at Insein, Burma, 
to a distinguished service. 

VI. Nor must we omit reference, among the con- 
tributions of the Baptists in Massachusetts, to the 
denominational press. The Watchman-Examiner 
which, under various titles, has existed since 1819, 
has aided greatly in creating and extending all 
sentiments, characteristics of true missions. The 
Reflector, originally started in Worcester in 1842, 
and The Christian Era, started in Lowell in 1875, 
both of which papers were finally merged with the 
Watchman with their editorial managers from the 
time of True and Weston to the present hour, have 
been among the foremost in intelligent and discrim- 
inating appreciation of missions. And they have 
always powerfully advocated all that this implied. 

VII. But any summary of the factors in Massa- 
chusetts potent in creating foreign mission senti- 
ment must embrace also the creation and influence 
of the Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society. 

Under the marked progress of the work abroad 
the time came when it was felt that women distinc- 



1 62 FOREIGN MISSIONS 

tively could add very greatly to efficiency abroad, 
particularly as workers among women and children 
in our numerous station schools. The women of 
Massachusetts were the first to respond. The Soci- 
ety organized in 1871. Mrs. Mary Colby was 
elected the first president, Mrs. Alvah Hovey the 
first secretary, and Miss Mary E. Clarke the first 
treasurer. An able body of directors, among whom 
were two from this church, Mary Loud and Adelaide 
Pierce, have always directed their affairs. Special 
mention should also be made of secretaries, Mrs. 
O. W. Gates, Mrs. Safford and Mrs. Lucy W. 
Peabody. The Society continued its separate ex- 
istence until the year before last when it was 
merged with the Women's Society of the West, the 
existence of which also had been stimulated by its 
influence. The amount of money raised by the 
Women's Society East during the forty-four years 
of its separate existence was $3,945,509. 10. A great 
amount of literature was likewise created and pub- 
lished ; and through the active influence of its gifted 
representatives in the numerous meetings held in 
state associations, local churches, and in junior 
societies, the foreign mission sentiment of the whole 
denomination became immensely extended and 
deepened. A vast amount of work upon the 
foreign fields, likewise, with the building of schools 
and hospitals and the conduct of the same by the 
single women representatives of this Society, have 
been of incalculable worth. All honor to these 
helpers in the Gospel in so varied spheres. 

A commonwealth and city which through so 



FOREIGN MISSIONS 1 63 

many eventful decades have furnished the seat of 
so phenomenal a movement and one embellished 
by so many and distinguished names, may fitly 
afford a centre on this continent for this ever-in- 
creasing work for generations to come. 

Meeting adjourned until 2 p. m. 



12 



1 64 THE HEROIC PERIOD 



Monday, June 7, 2 p. m. 

The session was opened with a prayer by Rev. 
Cary W. Chamberlain, of Beverly, Mass.: 

Our Father, we look up to Thee with gratitude 
to-day as we recall the past, remembering all the 
ways that Thou hast led this church, and we thank 
Thee that Thou art not less the God of the present 
and of the future, and we pray as we recall the past 
our hearts may catch something of the inspiration, 
something of the devotion that nerved and steadied 
those men of the past. And we pray that as we 
think of the way Thou hast led us there may come 
into all our hearts a purpose to be loyal and true as 
we have the light. Bless now these services this 
hour. For Thy name's sake we ask it. Amen. 

Hymn No. 602 — "The Son of God Goes Forth 
to War." 

Dr. Vickert: It is a great joy to all of us to 
have Dr. Crane in our midst and on our platform 
to-day. Dr. Crane feels that it would be better 
for him not to speak to us, but we have him here 
with us. He is eighty-two years old, I think, and 
full of strength and vigor of mind, although some- 
what feeble of body. I don't think any pastor 
ever had a greater multitude of friends and admirers 
than Dr. Crane. Nearly forty years since he 
began his pastorate here and I am sure we will 
always thank God because he was with us on this 
auspicious day. I wish Dr. Crane would just rise 



THE HEROIC PERIOD 1 65 

for a moment so that we can look at him any- 
way. 

Dr. Crane (rising): I just want to say this: 
that I never was so glad as I am now that silence 
is golden. 

Prayer by Rev. Philip S. Moxom, D.D.: 
Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this 
hour, with its sacred memories, with its pleasant 
experience of fellowship and thankfulness and with 
its imperishable hope. We thank Thee for the men 
and women who have wrought together here, and 
for those who have been leaders and who are still 
leaders in spirit, and for all that Thy work has ac- 
complished and all that the future promises. We 
are glad and grateful that we are under Thy hand 
and Thy guidance. Guide us, we beseech Thee, in 
the paths of Thy service and Thy peace, through 
Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen. 

Dr. de Blois introduced Rev. Nathan E. Wood, 
D.D. (Pastor of the First Church, 1 894-1 900) who 
spoke on The Heroic Period, as follows : 



1 66 THE HEROIC PERIOD 

THE HEROIC PERIOD 
Rev. Nathan E. Wood, D.D. 

One cannot understand the early history of this 
church without a review of the times in English life 
which surrounded it. No period in English history 
was more restless or filled with more turmoil than 
that which began with the "gun powder plot" in 
1605, in the reign of James the First, and ended 
with the " glorious revolution" in 1688, when 
William and Mary came to the English throne. 

It was a period of swift and surprising changes 
in politics and in religion, and has radically affected 
the whole adventure of the Anglo-Saxon race. It 
was the fertile seed plot in which were sown the 
ideas and principles that have come to such aston- 
ishing harvests in our modern times. The shuttle 
of change was driven so swiftly back and forth in 
forming the English national life, that the student 
becomes perplexed and almost confused in follow- 
ing it. Whatever there was of rural stagnation, 
or of narrow custom fixed by insular isolation, was 
thoroughly broken up by the unceasing agitation 
of those years. Just as the Crusades had broken 
down the walls of caste in Continental Europe, so 
these tempestuous years dissolved much of the 
remains of medievalism in England. The progress 
of Anglo-Saxon mankind seemed at times wholly 
lost in the quicksands of religious and political 
quackeries, bigotries and despotisms. 

These eighty years included the reigns of James 



THE HEROIC PERIOD 1 67 

the First, "the wisest fool in Christendom;" of 
Charles the First, who expiated his stupidity and 
wickedness on the scaffold at Whitehall (and whom 
the High Anglican party just now are bringing 
forward for a place in the list of saintly martyrs in 
the church, God save the mark !) ; of Oliver Crom- 
well, who broke across Europe like some mighty 
tempest of destruction, which led to refreshment 
and salubrity afterwards; of Charles the Second, 
who had learned nothing, and therefore had gained 
no wisdom for kingly statecraft. Through all this 
time liberty and despotism, religious and political, 
were like two giant wrestlers, rocking back and forth 
and each giving and gaining advantage. 

It was out of that wild time that our modern 
progress has sprung. Our Baptist fathers sowed 
in pain and blood, in prisons, at the stake, on the 
scaffold, and in banishment, and we reap the har- 
vests in our large and luminous liberties. It would 
seem incredible that our English forebears should 
be so slow in attaining liberty, if we did not know 
how intolerant we ourselves and our contemporaries 
are of the religious opinions of others, even in this 
enlightened age. Tolerance is not yet indigenous 
in most European lands. Intolerance is altogether 
too common a characteristic in our own land. 
Liberals and conservatives, if they can no longer 
make use of prisons, can still make faces at each 
other. Neither one has learned the largest toler- 
ance or to breathe the largest liberty. 

When King James the First came to the English 
throne in the early days of the seventeenth century, 



1 68 THE HEROIC PERIOD 

he came a man with a Scottish theological and dia- 
lectic training to an English people, an essential 
Presbyterian to the headship of an Episcopal hier- 
archy, a narrow bigot with an inordinate conceit 
in his own power, and in the certainty of the Tight- 
ness of his own theological views, to a kingdom 
wherein dissent was widely astir. He was wholly 
convinced about himself as of one who was touched 
with omniscience in all matters of religious opinion. 
This offered the finest conditions for intolerance 
and persecutions. 

In 1610, John Robinson and his little flock of 
pilgrims fled from Scrooby to Holland because 
there was no place for them in England except in 
prison. James, who had prated of liberty, like all 
intolerant men, meant only liberty within the 
ranges of thought which himself should prescribe. 
When in 1 610 the House of Commons was hesitating 
about provision for the king's treasury, the Prime 
Minister, an obsequious Cecil of Salisbury, told 
them that "James was not only the wisest of kings, 
but the very image of an angel. " But this "wisest 
fool of Christendom' ' became more intolerant as he 
was filled more and more with the conceit of his own 
royal perfections, and, being unable to endure 
dissent, followed threats with persecution. 

A steady stream of English dissenters flowed 
across the channel to Holland, and to Geneva, and 
when at last hope had fled of their ever finding a 
home again on English soil where they might wor- 
ship God in peace in their own way, there began the 
great Puritan exodus to the New World. From 



THE HEROIC PERIOD 1 69 

1620 to 1640, when the Long Parliament of Charles 
the First met, the stream from Old England to New 
England was steady, and more than 26,000 of the 
finest quality of English dissenters had put the 
broad ocean between themselves and the fiery 
embraces of a persecuting king and a hard estab- 
lished church. It was a kind of expatriation, and 
yet was not a total abandonment of the English 
life and the English name. 

It is not strange that dissenters of every name, 
and all who were restive under intolerance, should 
have looked wistfully across the broad Atlantic. 
Here was a possible haven of refuge. English 
Baptists would in London meet men who had 
crossed and returned and who would fill them with 
tales of the broad continent of the New World, the 
limitless spaces there, where men might breathe 
freely, and the splendor of the dream of a new Eng- 
lish empire wherein they might live and worship 
unmolested. 

In the spring of 1638, a ship lay at anchor in the 
Thames with no less personages on board than 
Oliver Cromwell and John Hampden, "who seeing 
no end of the oppression of their native country, 
determined to spend the remainder of their days in 
America; but the Council being informed of their 
design, issued out an order, dated May First 1638, 
to make stay of those ships, and put on shore all the 
provisions intended for the voyage." The reason 
of this refusal was "Because the people of New 
England were factious and unworthy of any support 
from hence, in regard to the great disorders and 



170 THE HEROIC PERIOD 

want of government among them, whereby many 
that have been well affected to the Church of 
England have been prejudiced in their estates by 
them." It was a strange providence which led 
the King to stop Oliver Cromwell and John Hamp- 
den from their intended voyage to the New World. 
The whole course of English history was thereby 
changed. But the fact that they and their friends 
turned their faces toward New England shows how 
dear and alluring a refuge it seemed to men who 
were hard beset by intolerance and persecution. 

In January, 1640, about eighty Baptists were 
arrested in the parish of St. Saviour, Southwark, 
London, because they had met in the house of one 
Richard Sturgess on the afternoon of a Lord's Day 
in order "to edify one another in Christ." They 
were ordered, under the severest penalty of the 
law, to desist, but obstinately insisted "that they 
owned no other head of the church than Jesus 
Christ; that no prince had power to make laws to 
bind the consciences of men; and that laws made 
contrary to the law of God were of no force. " This 
in a nutshell was the Baptist creed. 

In 1643, Parliament adopted "The Solemn League 
and Covenant" and required all ministers to sub- 
scribe to it. This Covenant bound them to en- 
deavor, without respect of persons, the extirpation 
of popery and prelacy. It is estimated that 
about two thousand clergymen of the Established 
Church were thus robbed of their ecclesiastical pre- 
ferment, and driven from their churches. Presby- 



THE HEROIC PERIOD 171 

terians in power proved themselves as intolerant as 
Episcopalians in like circumstances. 

It is not surprising that when Charles the Second 
came back to his royal throne, and was in a position 
to dare to do what he liked, that he and his advisers 
should pass an "Act of Uniformity" in the inter- 
ests of the Established Church, as drastic as the 
preceding act, and by means of which about two 
thousand ministers again, only this time Presby- 
terian, were ejected from their ecclesiastical livings 
and made homeless. 

Thus within the short space of seventeen years, 
English Baptists had witnessed first the unjust 
turning adrift of a great body of godly and devoted 
Episcopalian ministers because they could not sub- 
scribe in good conscience to the drastic theological 
tenets which chanced to be uppermost in the arena 
of a Parliament made up unexpectedly of Presby- 
terians ; and then again they had witnessed a Parlia- 
ment, which in the fluctuation of popular feeling in 
representative bodies had become royalist and 
Episcopalian, and which in its turn drove out an 
equally great body of godly and devoted Presby- 
terians or Independents. 

What guarantee was there when religion was thus 
allied with the state that there would be either 
liberty or tranquillity? Every popular political 
overturn meant ecclesiastical turmoil and distress. 
Moreover, whether under Episcopal or Presbyterian 
rule, Baptists were alike under odium and persecu- 
tion. "The Solemn League and Covenant" had 
no more tolerance for Baptists than "The Thirty- 



172 THE HEROIC PERIOD 

nine Articles of Religion.*' In either case, the 
state assumed a lordship in religion which was 
utterly alien to Baptist beliefs. ''The Assembly 
of Westminster Divines" was at root as hostile to 
Baptists as the arrogant "Convocation of Canter- 
bury." Whichever party chanced to be in power, 
life was made uncomfortable and undesirable for 
our sturdv Baptist brethren in Old England. 

"The Westminster Assembly of Presbyterian 
Divines" in 1645 abolished "the Book of Com- 
mon Prayer." The penalty of using it in the fam- 
ily was five pounds, and for the third offense one 
hundred pounds. But in 1663, seventeen years 
later, the Establishment, which had again gotten 
into power, made it a penal offense not to use "The 
Book of Common Prayer," and sought to make all 
dissenters conform, or languish in prison. Surely 
under such conditions there could be no tranquillity 
or peace for Baptists who were always dissenters 
from every form of a state-guided religion. As 
one might anticipate, Baptists turned toward the 
New World as a possible place of freedom of wor- 
ship and belief. 

It is true that there was some relief under Oliver 
Cromwell and the Commonwealth. Nearly all the 
officers of Cromwell's own regiment of horse were 
Baptists; Colonel Fleetwood, his son-in-law, and 
Lord Deputy of Ireland, and Lieutenant General 
in his army; Major General Harrison, one of his 
right hand men and one of the regicides; Major 
General Ludlow, and a host of others who were 
close to Cromwell and enjoyed his confidence, were 



THE HEROIC PERIOD 1 73 

Baptists. Cromwell himself was disposed to tol- 
eration. Nor must one overlook two world-im- 
mortal names of such Baptists as John Milton and 
John Bunyan. 

During this short pause in persecution, Baptists 
multiplied in every part of the kingdom, became 
active in establishing churches, sat in the high 
places of military and governmental authority, and 
helped amazingly in permeating the thought and 
discussion of the times with those true principles 
of liberty which have ultimately, although not 
without many fiery struggles and sufferings, become 
an integral part of Anglo-Saxon life and empire. 
But the storm of persecution soon broke again 
over them. They suffered in courts, in prisons, at 
the stake, saw the loss of their worldly possessions, 
and their families broken up. They were forbidden 
to meet together for worship. In a word, there was 
no place for them in Old England. 

It was out from the daily experience of such 
fiery trials that the Baptists who emigrated to New 
England had come. They were a sturdy and un- 
compromising lot of people. The Puritans of Bos- 
ton could not frighten them or drive them out. 
They were inured to peril. This explains in some 
part why this Baptist Church of Boston, although 
passing through bitter persecutions in its first fifty 
years of life, could not be extinguished. It was no 
new experience for them to be in prisons or to be 
robbed of possessions, or to be socially ostracised. 
The church simply would not die. 

It is a tragic circumstance that the early Baptists 



174 THE HEROIC PERIOD 

found little more freedom here than in the old home. 
The heavy hand of the Puritan magistrate was laid 
upon them. The dream of tolerance in the wilder- 
ness of the New World for a time proved futile, but 
the story of what they suffered for conscience' sake, 
and out of sheer loyalty to Jesus Christ and His 
gospel, is an historic possession of which any church 
may well be both thankful and proud. 

The Puritan ministers and rulers in Boston were 
determined that there should be no dissenters in 
the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. They them- 
selves had been dissenters in Old England. They 
had suffered much on this account and had fled to 
the New England in order to gain for themselves 
freedom and an unmolested home. But strangely 
they thought that in this new home they could keep 
out other dissenters who had suffered as they had 
suffered in the old home. Dissenters are dissenters 
whether they pronounce their "shiboleth" with an 
" h " or without it. It was a strangely futile dream 
in which our Puritan forefathers walked, when they 
fancied that they could shut out the spirit of dissent 
from the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, when that 
spirit had always been one of the most imperious 
and marked inheritances of men of English blood. 

It was Roger Williams in Salem who led the way. 
Six months after the founding of Boston in the 
summer of 1630, he sailed into Boston harbor on 
the good ship, Lion. Dissent had come early to 
the New World and had come to stay. At first he 
was welcomed to Boston, but his independent ut- 
terances and actions created unpleasant forebod- 



THE HEROIC PERIOD 175 

ings. He soon was called to Salem where his teach- 
ings brought him into collisions with the authorities 
in the church, and finally drove him to the Colony 
of Rhode Island, where he founded Providence and 
the First Baptist Church of that town. Sympathis- 
ers with Williams and with Baptist views began to 
spring up in Salem, Swampscott, Hingham, Scit- 
uate and Boston, but they did not join in any com- 
mon organization. 

About 1637, tne distinguished Hansard Knollys 
of London came and was refused residence because 
of his "views of Anabaptists." Dr. John Clarke, a 
physician, and "man of education and property" 
was forced to leave the colony and settled in New 
Hampshire where there was more tolerance. But 
New Hampshire had a climate as well as tolerance, 
and his health drove him to Newport, Rhode Island, 
where between 1639 an d 1644 he founded the First 
Baptist Church in that town. 

In 1 65 1 Dr. Clarke, Obadiah Holmes and John 
Crandall, members of his church, visited by re- 
quest an aged Baptist man in Lynn, and comforted 
him in his own home by expounding the Scriptures, 
and by the observance of the Lord's Supper with 
him. Spies reported them, and constables arrested 
them, and hurried them off to the jail in Prison 
Lane (now Court St.), Boston, because they had 
not the permission of the ministers of the standing 
order. They were publicly tried. Clarke was fined 
twenty pounds; Holmes was fined thirty pounds 
or to be well whipped. Crandall was fined five 
pounds. Holmes refused to have his fine paid and 



I76 THE HEROIC PERIOD 

was publicly whipped; thirty strokes with a three 
corded whip were laid upon his naked back. This 
took place at the head of State Street, in front of 
the Old State House, and on the Green of the First 
Parish Church, which then stood where the Brazier 
Building now stands. 

Dr. Clarke offered to discuss publicly with the 
Puritan ministers the points at issue between Bap- 
tists and Congregationalists, but they would not 
hear to it. Dr. John Cotton, in his sermon before 
the court which tried them, declared "denying in- 
fant baptism would overthrow all, and this was a 
capital offense, and therefore they were soul mur- 
derers." These were but the beginnings of bitter 
persecutions for Baptists. They suffered social os- 
tracism, judicial fines, imprisonments innumerable. 
They were ordered into banishment, but would not 
stay banished. 

It was, doubtless, this whipping of Holmes and 
the attitude of Dr. Clarke which arrested the at- 
tention of one of the foremost men in the colony, 
Henry Dunster, President and really the founder 
of Harvard College. He was an English University- 
bred man, and a "miracle of scholarship." No 
man was more greatly admired and trusted. It 
was only two years after the public whipping of 
Holmes that President Henry Dunster publicly dis- 
sented from infant baptism, to the utter dismay of 
the Puritan ministers. Every effort to convince 
him of his heresy and to win him back failed, and 
he was driven out of his position as President of 
the college, under especially distressing circum- 



THE HEROIC PERIOD 177 

stances. He removed to Scituate which was out- 
side the jurisdiction of the colony. 

It was Henry Dunster who was the personal 
friend and adviser of Thomas Goold, who was ex- 
communicated from the First Parish Church of 
Charlestown, because of his repudiation of infant 
baptism. Thomas Goold became the founder of 
this church in 1665, only a few years after Henry 
Dunster passed away. It may be said, therefore, 
with a large measure of truth, that Henry Dunster 
was the founder of this First Baptist Church of 
Boston, for he was the immediate forerunner and 
influential cause of the attitude of Thomas Goold, 
who finally became the actual founder in 1665. 

Gould was one of the leading freemen of Charles- 
town and was a man of notable standing, in town 
and church. He was a large property owner and 
had been a selectman. He was a sober, thoughtful 
man of inflexible resolution. He spent much of his 
time for the next five years in prison. He was often 
fined, and was ordered to leave the colony. But 
no threat, or fine, or jail sentence, deterred him 
from his chosen course. Closely associated with 
him was Thomas Osborne, who, like himself, was a 
man of property and social standing in the town, 
and had also a like undaunted spirit. These men 
and their associates in this church were men of 
heroic mould and spirit, and could say with Paul the 
Apostle, "None of these things move me, neither 
count I my life dear unto myself." There is no 
way so certain to make a Baptist church take root 
and grow as to persecute it. 



178 THE HEROIC PERIOD 

It is not difficult to picture the little group of 
baptised believers. Seven men, four of whom had 
just been buried in baptism with their Lord, and 
two women, nine in all, meeting in the home of 
Thomas Goold, June 7, 1665, and in simple prayer- 
ful fashion "engaging to walk together in all the 
appointments of their Lord and Master, the Lord 
Jesus Christ." They then adopted a confession of 
faith, which was almost wholly in biblical language, 
and is still the confession of this ancient church, 
and so gave to the world the " Magna Charta" of 
civic and religious liberty in the New England. It 
was this little group which quietly defied the whole 
power of church and state to expatriate them or to 
crush them. They fought out to victory the battle 
for tolerance, and finally for freedom. In the first 
six years of their history, twenty-two others (four- 
teen men and eight women) united with them, 
while the storm of persecution was most pitiless. 
They were courageous souls "who obeyed God 
rather than men." 

No man can write the full story of what these 
early Baptists suffered, in wintry prisons, in petty 
judicial persecutions, in social ostracism, in inces- 
sant harassment, in unjust suspicion, and in the 
danger which always hung over their households. 
The historian wearies in the recital of that sad 
story which the quaint and dingy old papers, letters, 
and manuscripts of that dreadful time now bring 
to the light of day. The foundations of this First 
Baptist Church were laid amid tears, anguish, hope 
deferred, families broken asunder, property taken, 



THE HEROIC PERIOD 1 79 

good names aspersed, and a future which seemed 
to be arched with no bow of promise of quiet and 
peace. Wives with an unyielding courage gave 
their husbands to the prison, and carried food to 
them through the drear New England winters, and 
ministered to them in patience and faith. Men 
were ready to suffer the loss of all things, but they 
were not ready to carry a fettered conscience. 

Such men and women as laid the foundations of 
this church might die, but they would never surren- 
der their right to religious liberty. It is a picture 
of heroic endurance, which not even the annals of 
Plymouth Colony in 1620 can surpass. It was 
a struggle for freedom, the story of which cannot 
be told too often. Puritan severity was pitted 
against Baptist pluck. Puritan intolerance was 
contending against the English and Christian love 
of liberty. Puritan exclusiveness was vainly build- 
ing walls against the freedom of the gospel. The 
Puritans struggled all in vain against men who 
were as sturdy as themselves, and who withal 
were the embodiment of a principle in religion 
which cannot be conquered. 

This ancient church has had more than one 
heroic period. Its men and women have needed 
and have had the same pluck, endurance and con- 
secration which were characteristic of the founders. 
The circumstances have differed, but the heroism 
has been the same. A hundred years after its 
founding (1764) it was brought very low through 
the doctrinal views and the pastoral ill success of 
its minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Condy. During 

13 



180 THE HEROIC PERIOD 

a pastorate of twenty-six years, there were but 
forty additions to its membership. 

Moreover, it was the time of the great Whitefield 
revival, which swept through Boston and New 
England with unexampled power. Thousands were 
turned to the Christian life. But Mr. Condy set 
himself in opposition. He joined hands with those 
ministers of the Puritan churches in Boston who 
were drifting toward anti-trinitarianism, and who 
laid little or no emphasis on the need of the new 
birth and on the other doctrines which are naturally 
connected with it. This church went down to the 
lowest point of strength in all its long history. 
Old members withdrew. New people would not 
come in. Another and openly evangelistic Baptist 
church sprang up in Boston. This second church 
waxed strong and vigorous, while the First lan- 
guished. At the end of the first century of its 
existence and the end of the twenty- sixth year 
of Mr. Condy's pastorate, there were left but sixty 
names on its membership rolls, and not all of these 
were in sympathy with the church. They were 
heroic men who stayed by the church in this crisis. 
The lamp was almost extinguished. The faith 
of its men and women was taxed to the utmost. 

But the rejuvenescence of the church was great 
and glorious, when the Rev. Samuel Stillman be- 
came the pastor. He believed in revivals. He 
preached an evangelical gospel. The church began 
again to prosper. The pastor became one of the 
most influential ministers in the city and was held 



THE HEROIC PERIOD l8r 

in great honor. The church was saved and grew 
strong. 

A second heroic period came during the American 
Revolution. This church gave its men to the 
Continental Army. Many of its families removed 
from the city during its occupation by the British 
army. Its meeting house was turned into a 
barrack for British troops, and later into a hos- 
pital, and was given over to the use of smallpox 
patients. Its minister was compelled to leave the 
city; the ruin seemed complete. But when at 
length the British evacuated the city, Dr. Stillman, 
now celebrated as the most eloquent patriot 
preacher in Boston, came back and in the midst 
of the universal desolation and distress rallied the 
church and began the heroic work of rehabilitation. 
It was a long, slow and difficult task, but their 
courage and heroism were at length rewarded, under 
God, with growth and prosperity. 

The third heroic period came in 1826. The 
pastor, Rev. Francis Wayland, had resigned. The 
church became divided. Dissensions over his suc- 
cessor became rife. The church was steadily 
declining. The site of their meeting house, on 
Salem and Stillman streets, had been their place 
of worship for one hundred and fifty years, but 
during the growth of the city, the neighborhood 
had greatly changed. Families had been steadily 
removing from the North End to other sections of 
the city. The need of a new meeting house in a 
new location had become imperative, but even 
in this the members did not see eye to eye. The 



1 82 THE HEROIC PERIOD 

church became greatly weakened. But again, the 
heroic few led the church out to a new location, and 
a new house of worship was built on the corner of 
Hanover Street and Green Dragon Lane (now 
Union Street). Here again prosperity came to 
them under the vigorous evangelical preaching of 
their new pastor, Rev. William Hague. Throngs 
waited on his ministry and additions by conversions 
were continuous. Again the church was saved. 

A fourth heroic period came in 1875, when the 
church, then worshiping on Somerset Street, had 
so far declined that it could not rely on more than 
one hundred of its members to attend its meetings. 
Again, the location was against the best interests of 
the church. Dr. Neale's long pastorate of forty- 
years was coming to its close. It was a crisis. 
Men freely predicted the extinction of the old 
church. But the small group of strong laymen 
who yet remained led in a removal to Shawmut 
Avenue, and again the old church renewed its vigor 
and prospered. Every ancient church, doubtless, 
has had this frequent recurrence of crises, when 
men of heroic mould have been raised up, as in 
the times of the Israelitish judges. 

Two hundred and fifty years is a long period in 
the history of the New World. It is a long period 
in the history of a church, and the people of Christ 
who have been so divinely helped in all these years 
will not lack for guidance from God in all the years 
to come. Men of strength, of courage, of consecra- 
tion and of vision, will arise as the exigent need 
appears. The long list of heroic men and women, 



THE HEROIC PERIOD 1 83 

whose names honor the roll of this church, reads 
like that list of martyrs and heroes which makes the 
glorious roster in the Eleventh Chapter of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews. Men and women of 
faith, of vision, and of consecrated courage, they 
make our New England and Baptist heritage 
priceless and eternal.* 

Dr. Vickert: The next speaker will be Rev. 
Philip S. Moxom, D. D., who was the immediate 
successor in this pastorate of Dr. Crane and the 
immediate predecessor of Dr. Wood. Dr. Moxom: 

Dr. Moxom: With fear of the stenographer on 
me, I am going to venture a Hibernianism and say 
a few words before I begin. In the first place, I am 
extremely grateful for the privilege of being here 
and renewing the very dear fellowship after many 
years of absence, and I wish most heartily to give 
to the church and its pastor my warmest congratu- 
lations on this anniversary and to say that in all 
the achievements of this church, and in all its 
interests, I have the greatest pride. I have been 
asked since I came to the platform why it was that 
I brought a manuscript to-day. I have sometimes 
noticed, as I presume some of you have noticed, the 
danger of extemporaneous speech in a crowded 
program. The temptation to talk on after one has 
gotten through is one of those irresistible tempta- 
tions that beset the male heart. When such an 

"The author has quoted freely from his own " History of The 
First Baptist Church." 



1 84 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY 

•event occurs, I am reminded of the schoolboy whose 
teacher sent home a note saying, "Your boy talks 
too much. ' ' The father wrote back, ' ' Great Caesar, 
you should hear his mother. 

Another tiling. I have been wondering if it was 
symbolic that when Dr. Wood began to speak he 
put away the Bible and I have to take it back. 
Now, you will become properly serious for the con- 
sideration of a serious theme. 



SOME FRUITS OF THE STRUGGLE 
FOR LIBERTY 

Rev. Philip S. Moxom, D. D. 

There always has been a struggle for liberty, at 
least ever since mankind awoke to its first dim sense 
of what liberty means. The history of civilization 
is a history of aspiration and endeavor to achieve 
freedom, political, religious, social and economic. 
All real progress has been along the line of this 
aspiration and endeavor. Progress has not been 
uniform nor has it been rapid. Often it has seemed 
to be entirely suspended; sometimes apparently 
there has been positive retrogression. Yet, if we 
use long periods for the purpose of measurement, 
we find that there has been a constant, if slow, for- 
ward movement. If it took a long time for primi- 
tive man to " Move upward, working out the best, " 
he nevertheless did move upward and, although he 
has not yet let "the ape and tiger" within him 
wholly expire, there is less of the bestial and more 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY 1 85 

of the humane in human character and relation- 
ships (with possibly one exception) than in any pre- 
vious period of recorded time. 

The coming of the Pilgrims to Plymouth in 1620, 
and of the Puritans to the mouth of the Charles 
River in 1630 was a protest against religious oppres- 
sion in England and a bold stroke for religious 
liberty in a new world. Yet none of these pioneers 
was entirely free from the spirit which causes relig- 
ious oppression, nor did one of them suspect the real 
and far-reaching significance of their action. The 
Massachusetts Colony soon showed that in the 
hearts of men who strove for liberty for themselves 
there lingered the roots of the same sort of intol- 
erance from which they had suffered. 

We need spend no time in criticising them now. 
They were men of their own age, albeit there was 
an element of prophecy in the step which they took 
unsuspected by themselves. They were intolerant 
toward Baptists and Quakers and innocent persons 
accused of practising witchcraft, but they did a 
brave and noble work and laid foundations on which 
men and women of later times have builded a 
broader and fairer freedom than the Puritans knew 
or imagined. Too much must not be made of the 
Puritan persecution of the Baptists. It is better 
to be persecuted than to persecute, and those who 
suffer make a larger contribution to human weal 
than those who inflict suffering. Besides, Baptists, 
while it is their boast that notwithstanding what 
they suffered from others they never persecuted 
others, have not been guiltless of a kind of persecut- 



1 86 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY 

ing spirit which made martyrs of their own brethren. 
Happily, that spirit is greatly reduced and must 
soon cease to affect the action of any considerable 
group of Christians. The persecuting spirit has 
not been peculiar to any sect; all have more or less 
felt its malign influence and all will rejoice in its 
complete disappearance. 

In celebrating the two hundred and fiftieth anni- 
versary of its birth, this venerable church has a right 
to recall with honest pride the part which it took 
in the early history of the Commonwealth and 
the stand which it made for freedom in religion 
at a time when such freedom was rare in the 
world, if not unknown. The cost in inconvenience 
and positive suffering was slight in comparison 
with the ultimate gain, not only for themselves 
and their immediate successors but also for all 
others. However, if I understand aright the 
spirit of this occasion and this assembly, we do 
not look back through a quarter of a millenium 
merely in search for reasons for self-glorification. 
Wholesome reflection on the past brings to the 
mind monition as well as instruction and in- 
spiration. There is inspiration in the example of 
men and women whose convictions of truth and 
sense for liberty were of more value to them than 
comfort, or immunity from suffering, or even life 
itself. Their convictions may have lost for us 
something of the high value which they had in their 
distant environment; their stout fidelity to those 
convictions has undiminished value. Their measure 
of liberty may seem to us rather narrow; their 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY 1 87 

appreciation of liberty as they conceived it has 
perennial significance. They aided in accumulating 
the treasure which we have inherited, and thus have 
laid us under obligation of lasting gratitude. 

As we look through the long vista of years those 
pioneers of religious liberty in America lose some- 
what of their uncouthness and limitations; their 
deficiencies and faults, as measured by the standards 
of to-day, fall away and we see them glorified by the 
priceless thing for which they stood at whatever 
cost might be involved. We may best honor their 
memory by recalling to our minds some of the fruits 
of their struggle which are a large part of our birth- 
right. We 

"The heirs of all the ages, 
In the foremost files of time." 

are rich in possessions which are so much a 
part of our life that they have almost wholly 
sunk below consciousness, save when some event 
like the present celebration vividly calls them to 
mind. Let us, then, try to state to ourselves and 
to evaluate anew some of those fruits. 

In the first place, there has come to us a juster 
sense of proportion in the estimation of religious 
doctrines and ceremonies, a truer valuation of the 
religious spirit and the expression of religious ideas 
and emotions. Much that our fathers held as 
divine truth is now seen to be defective and some- 
times quite erroneous. Many of their particular 
beliefs have entirely passed away or have been so 
modified that to those who held them they would 
be unrecognizable. The forms in which religious 



1 88 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY 

ideas were expressed in early times have lost a great 
part of their old significance. There has been a 
vast change of emphasis so that things once consid- 
ered to be of primary importance are no longer 
important. Through teaching and experience real 
values have emerged in the religious life which make 
past valuations almost grotesque. Credal state- 
ments, ordinances, conditions of church fellowship, 
have so changed in the estimation of the religious 
mind that it is difficult to-day to see with the eyes 
of men who were ready to suffer and to die for a 
dogma, or the form of a ceremony, or the require- 
ments for admission to participation in the Lord's 
Supper. 

Nevertheless, the spirit of loyalty to their con- 
victions of truth and right is the priceless treasure 
which abides, outlasting all changes. Fidelity to 
truth never loses its value or lessens its demand on 
the conscience and will of man. Self-commitment 
to what is believed to be the will of God loses nothing 
of its worth and splendor, though what was believed 
to be the will of God is now seen to have been the 
partial opinion and imperfect will of fallible man. 
It is the spirit which counts. This must be pre- 
served if the present is to profit by the past. 

But further, the struggle of the fathers for relig- 
ious liberty carried in its bosom the seeds of the larger 
comprehension of what religious liberty means and 
involves which has become the possession of their 
latest children. The stand for a man's right to 
worship God according to the dictates of his own 
mind and heart, instructed by the study of the 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY 1 89 

Sacred Scriptures, was a stand for the wider liberty 
of the present and made its achievement possible. 
It pointed out the way of spiritual progress. Unless 
the elementary liberty for which they contended 
had been won, no matter at what cost, the fuller 
liberty enjoyed today would have been impossible. 

That the fathers lacked a just sense of proportion 
in their estimation of religious doctrines and cere- 
monies; that they were characterized by a dogma- 
tism which would be intolerable to us; that they 
over- valued some things in religion which are valued 
far less in the present, and perhaps under-valued 
other things which are among our real treasures, 
may be freely granted. The fact remains, however, 
that their struggle forwarded the general movement 
which has issued in the saner and sweeter spirit, 
the broader charity and the more ample liberty of 
the twentieth century. They builded better than 
they knew, and we, without them, could not have 
attained unto what we possess. 

A second good which was made possible by the 
struggle for liberty is an attitude toward differing 
views of religious theory and practice that is not 
so much toleration, a thing that smacks of a pat- 
ronizing temper, as it is a recognition of the rights 
of others to as full a liberty as we demand for our- 
selves. 

The Baptist fathers suffered much from intol- 
erance. They themselves were not wholly guilt- 
less of intolerance. But their struggle for religious 
liberty involved consequences which were sure ulti- 
mately to banish intolerance. The men who 



190 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY 

claimed the right to worship God according to the 
dictates of their own consciences logically could not 
fail to concede to others who differed from them 
the same right. If Baptists have not always and 
universally seen this, it is less their fault than their 
misfortune. 

Their fundamental principle was sound; if their 
practice has not always perfectly accorded with 
their principle, they have but shared the universal 
human frailty of inconsistency. But the funda- 
mental principle had in it "the promise and po- 
tency" of a complete catholicity. Nothing is more 
true than that Christianity on its political side 
means democracy, on its social side it means broth- 
erhood, as on its economic side it means co-opera- 
tion. The spirit of true democracy, as Theodore 
Parker long ago pointed out, says not "I am as 
good as you," but "You are as good as I. " 

To a considerable degree this spirit has been 
attained in the religious world. The contention for 
one's own rights has its counterpart in the conten- 
tion for the rights of the other man. A new comity 
has begun to appear. For a long time the struggle 
was for simple tolerance: it was for permission to 
believe and to act within the religious sphere in 
free conformity with one 's own convictions of what 
is true and obligatory, so long as no invasion was 
made on the rights and liberties of others. But it 
was soon seen that toleration was far from a perfect 
or permanent .condition. To grant a right implies 
the power and at least a shadow of authority to 
withhold that right. Then, when in the name of 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY I9I 

the one God and Father of mankind men claimed 
the right to worship God in freedom, they claimed 
it not as a concession benevolently made, not as a 
privilege which might be withheld, but as a basic 
right of every human soul. Therefore, the struggle 
was essentially a struggle not for toleration, but for 
recognition as equal in rights and privileges with 
all other men. 

The principle, then, for which the Baptists con- 
tended necessarily broadened out into an affirma- 
tion of the right which is every man's inheritance 
from God. We no longer simply tolerate our fel- 
lowmen, whether Christians or Jews, whether Mo- 
hammedans, or Buddhists, but frankly acknowledge 
and respect their equal right with us to the im- 
measurable blessing of religious liberty. This also 
is a fruit of the struggle of the battlers for human 
freedom in whose ranks our Baptist fathers hold a 
distinguished place. 

A third and late result of the struggle for relig- 
ious liberty is a decline of denominationalism as a 
divisive force. There is a denominational esprit de 
corps which is not divisive and which makes for 
efficiency. It is the self-conserving and self-devel- 
oping instinct which we find in the healthy family, 
the healthy community and the healthy nation. 
It is that care of self which issues in a larger and 
richer service to mankind. 

A religious denomination which does not give to 
itself the culture that will increase its efficiency fails 
to fulfil an important obligation to society. This 
self-regard is not divisive and is not sectarian. 



192 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY 

More and more emphasis is placed on the truths and 
duties which have common recognition. Denom- 
inations no longer fight each other but align them- 
selves with one another to fight a common foe and 
to prosecute a common enterprise. Union in wor- 
ship and work, once so difficult to accomplish, has 
grown easy, natural, spontaneous. Passing from 
one denomination to another is no longer an act 
of treason to be punished by ostracism; it may be 
a step to a larger usefulness. The union on this 
continent of more than thirty denominations com- 
prising more than seventeen million communicants 
in the Federal Council is an impressive evidence of 
this drawing together of the organized religious 
forces of the country. 

It may not be at once apparent that this rap- 
prochement is in any direct way a fruit of the strug- 
gle for religious liberty in which our fathers engaged ; 
a little reflection, however, enables us to see a vital 
connection. When men contend and suffer for 
freedom, their appreciation of freedom grows. The 
growing appreciation of freedom strengthens the 
conviction of all men's inalienable right to freedom. 
As freedom is won, the winners of it quickly become 
champions of the right of others to the same blessing. 
With this exercise of freedom, both self-respect and 
respect for others increase. Thus it comes about, 
finally, that a fellowship is revealed which traverses 
all lines of denominational difference. In a true 
sense, therefore, this inclusive fellowship is a fruit 
of the struggle for religious liberty, for without 
liberty the fellowship could not be. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY I93 

It is not surprising, then, that religious bodies 
have attained a fuller recognition of the merits of 
each other and a juster appreciation of each other's 
work. This has led to a co-operation of denomina- 
tions that has widened the field of Christian enter- 
prise. Notably this is the case in the work of 
missions in foreign lands. There, more than at 
home, the denominations, at least many of them, 
are no longer competitive sects, but hearty co-oper- 
ators in the one great task of civilizing and Chris- 
tianizing the backward peoples. Such co-opera- 
tion can arise only among workers who are free and 
self-respecting. This larger and nobler life of fel- 
lowship and co-operation is a product of that spirit 
which in ancient days perceived the right and duty 
of freedom and made the sacrifices necessary for 
its attainment. 

Our inheritance from the fathers is thus a com- 
mon inheritance. All denominations share it. Ev- 
ery real good has this diffusive quality: it spreads 
beyond the boundaries of sect or party. With the 
inheritance comes an obligation. We of to-day 
must be better than our ancestors or we are not as 
good and we must do far more for the weal of man- 
kind than they did or we do much less. The par- 
adox is transparent. 

What of the future, not of this church or this 
denomination, but of all organized Christianity? 
We seem to have arrived at a crisis in the experience 
of mankind. It is a crisis, not like that of Tours in 
732 when Charles M artel rolled back the Saracen 
invasion which threatened to submerge Western 



194 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY 

civilization, nor even like that of the Napoleonic 
wars of a hundred years ago. It brings to civiliza- 
tion and to Christianity a severer test than any 
preceding conflict. The breaking down of the moral 
life of a people is an appalling spectacle. I believe 
that the war that now shakes the world will issue 
in the destruction of the military power which looks 
on perfidy and ruthlessness as biological necessities 
and exalts war into an ordinance of God and a bless- 
ing to mankind. 

We are near the dawn of a new era in the history 
of the world. If the followers of Christ are faithful 
in this time of trial, if they stand firmly for Chris- 
tian principles and Christian ideals in the Christian 
spirit, there be will a new birth of religion and a 
new birth of democracy. The blighting influence 
of materialism on the moral life of peoples will be 
broken. A fresh and loftier conception of God will 
have many witnesses and Christendom will slowly 
clear itself of the shame of presenting to the world 
a mocking contradiction of its own avowed princi- 
ples. In this coming day, the dawn of which 
already glimmers on the horizon, there will be a 
fuller realization of the liberty of the spirit for which 
the fathers strove and suffered and died. And it 
will be a liberty wider, purer and more prolific of 
good to humanity than that of which they dreamed. 



BAPTIST PRINCIPLES AND PROGRESS 1 95 

BAPTIST PRINCIPLES AND PROGRESS 

Rev. Francis H. Rowley, D.D. 

It would have been a much pleasanter task for 
me to fulfil had I been asked to speak this afternoon 
in a very informal way of the ten years of my 
association with this historic church. I could 
have borne witness to its Christian and catholic 
spirit, its good will toward all other churches of 
Christ, irrespective of name or creed, and its un- 
failing interest in those great human problems that 
are concerned at once with the progress of Christ's 
kingdom and of the world. When I came to it I 
entered into a richer heritage than any of my pred- 
ecessors, for I was a sharer in the fruit of the toil 
of all who had gone before me. I found a church 
worthy the denominational name it bore, yet free 
from sectarian prejudices, loyal to its own con- 
victions, but large enough and generous enough to 
listen to any message that it felt was the sincere 
utterance of a seeker for the truth. I did not always 
preach acceptable sermons. Often many of the 
older brethren doubted the soundness of the faith 
that was in me. But how patient they were ! How 
long-suffering and how kind! I can see now that 
fine and venerable face of dear Deacon Linscott as 
he said occasionally, "I can't agree with you." 
And I can still hear that staunch and great-hearted 
defender of Baptist doctrine, our beloved Major 
Jones, say, "Pastor, that's not according to what 
I have been taught," but never an unkind criticism, 

14 



I96 BAPTIST PRINCIPLES AND PROGRESS 

never a bitter word. And so love prevailed and 
loyalty did not fail. 

I never knew an unhappy pastorate, and the years 
of my ministry here are golden in the memories that 
must abide for time and eternity. Oh, no, I do not 
mean to say that never any shadows fell across our 
paths. I am quite willing to say, however, that 
whenever shadows did now and then make the way 
less radiant, the fault was doubtless mine. I count 
it the great honor of my life to have been ten years 
the minister of this church. Here I came to know 
many of the noblest men and women I have ever 
met, and for nothing am I more grateful than for 
the experiences and the friendships born of my 
relationship to this people. 

In turning to the theme upon which I have been 
asked to speak briefly to-day, I feel much like a man 
appearing at Newcastle with coals. I cannot hope 
to say anything that is not perfectly familiar to you 
all, and I never was greatly interested in gatherings 
of any kind where the chief pleasure of the occasion 
seemed to be found in self-glorification. 

To speak of Baptist principles and progress 
necessitates at the very outset a definition of terms. 
To the majority of those of other denominations, 
and to the world at large, the distinctive charac- 
teristics of a Baptist church are its views concerning 
the form of baptism, the proper subjects of the rite, 
and the exclusion from the Lord's Supper of all 
those of a different faith and order. Generally and 
broadly speaking these are the things because of 
which it is commonly thought we have separated 



BAPTIST PRINCIPLES AND PROGRESS 1 97 

ourselves from time immemorial from other Chris- 
tians. It is surely needless to say that this is so 
erroneous a view, that if this were what it must 
mean to be a Baptist, there are many among us 
who would long ago have been quite satisfied to be 
called by almost any other Christian name. 

There are, furthermore, multitudes of Baptists 
who, while compelled to believe that the apostolic 
churches were essentially what we should call to- 
day Baptist churches, would make no claim to an 
unbroken line of Baptist history reaching back from 
New Testament days to the present. The things 
for which we stand, the principles for which our 
fathers contended, dying for them through many a 
Christian century, witnessing to them at the stake, 
on the rack of torture, by imprisonments, fines and 
banishments, testifying to their faith in them, we 
do believe, however, are as old as Christianity 
itself. We find these principles proclaimed to the 
world by such groups of men as the Donatists of 
the fourth century, reappearing in the teachings of 
the Waldenses and of men like Arnold of Brescia in 
the twelfth century, affirmed by heralds of the 
Reformation in the sixteenth century, maintained 
by a few in England from the time of WicklifFe to 
that of the Commonwealth, set forth in a confession 
of faith issued in London in 1643, in substance 
reaffirmed by Roger Williams in Massachusetts and 
Rhode Island, and finally spreading over the United 
States, until at last their influence and power have 
girdled the world, their progress marked not only 
by the multiplication of Baptist churches in every 



I98 BAPTIST PRINCIPLES AND PROGRESS 

land where Christianity has found a home, but by 
the silent, resistless energy with which they have 
entered into the life of nearly every other Christian 
body, till to-day they are really the common heri- 
tage of protestant Christianity. 

But what are they, these Baptist principles, these 
deep, fundamental truths, because of which for so 
many generations multitudes of men were willing 
to suffer every form of persecution, never them- 
selves, even when they might have done it, using 
the slightest constraining force over any man's soul 
or body, and in which so many of us even at the 
beginning of this twentieth century still glory? I 
am simply going to state them. I have neither 
time nor inclination for argument or discussion. 

It is not difficult to define them, and they stand 
together. They spring out of what those who hold 
them conceive to be the only legitimate and rational 
conception of the New Testament — the fountain 
head of Christian truth. He who turns to the 
Christian scriptures finds himself brought face to 
face with a personal God. He is taught that in 
the highest realm of the soul, the realm of religious 
faith, he is accountable alone to this one supreme 
Lord and Saviour. He finds himself bidden read, 
search, think for himself, responsible only to his 
God for his interpretation of the truth as he can 
see it. When, therefore, the ancient church allied 
itself with the temporal power of the state and this 
new body presumed to dictate to the individual 
Christian in matters of faith, there came naturally 
and at once that protest of the human soul that 



BAPTIST PRINCIPLES AND PROGRESS 1 99 

recognized no other authority in religion but the 
God who made it. This protest asserted the soul's 
untrammelled freedom, its sacred liberty of con- 
science, and denied once and for all the right of the 
state to determine the belief of the individual or to 
shape in any way the life of the church whose head 
was, and could be, only Christ. Freedom of con- 
science, separation of church and state, two prin- 
ciples, if you will, but the latter the inevitable se- 
quence of the other, these are convictions, elemental 
in the Christian religion, and for which intelligent 
Baptists have stood whether called by the name 
they now have or by the names of reproach so long 
given them by those to whom such principles seemed 
the essence of heresy. 

Again, when men who found in the Christian 
scriptures the all-sufficient guide in matters of 
religious faith would associate themselves together 
in a Christian church, they were bound, if true to 
what those scriptures taught, to hold as suitable 
members of such a church only those who had 
learned for themselves the truth, who had come to 
know the Lord and Saviour, and who upon their 
own confession of their faith in Him desired to be 
connected with the organization. To-day nearly all 
the churches of every name accept as their own this 
principle that church membership should be pre- 
ceded by some positive acknowledgment on the 
part of him who seeks it of his personal acceptance 
of Christ and his desire to follow him. 

But for long and weary centuries this now almost 
universally accepted principle was denied by the 



200 BAPTIST PRINCIPLES AND PROGRESS 

great majority of churches and maintained alone 
by little groups of men and women, for the most 
part called Baptists, and for the most part despised 
and reviled by their fellow Christians. 

Whatever prominence has been given to the mode 
of baptism in the controversies of the past, all 
scholars now admitting our claim as to the original 
meaning of the word and the practice of the early 
church, it cannot be said that immersion has always 
been an unfailing and distinctive Baptist principle. 
Of course, so long as practically all Christians 
immersed there could arise no difference of opinion. 
And there is good evidence to believe that not all 
the better Anabaptists even insisted on immersion, 
and it is well known that some who have so insisted 
have not been Baptists. There are many English 
Baptist churches which admit to membership those 
who have been baptised in other ways, yielding here 
to the individual's own conscience as to what fulfils 
the command. 

I grant that the logic of what may be called the 
strict Baptist position is quite unanswerable. If 
immersion alone is New Testament baptism, and 
if only immersed believers are to be admitted to 
church membership, and if baptism by immersion 
is a prerequisite to the communion, then it is easy 
to see where logic leads us. But the Christian 
spirit is mightier than logic and slowly has done its 
work in the majority of our churches. In this, I 
imagine, the most of us rejoice. At least many of 
us have reached the point where, when the choice 






BAPTIST PRINCIPLES AND PROGRESS 201 

must be made between logic and brotherly love, we 
prefer to take our chances with the latter. 

To gather, however, into a final word what I 
have so inadequately said — The great, the funda- 
mental things in the realm of religion for which the 
denomination we represent here to-day has, beyond 
all others, consistently and uniformly stood, are: 
I , The New Testament Scriptures, the all-sufficient 
guide in matters of Christian truth; 2, The freedom 
of the human soul in the realm of faith; 3, The 
widest civil liberty consistent with an established 
and well-ordered government; 4, A church into 
whose membership are admitted only those able 
with more or less conscious knowledge to confess 
their Christian faith; 5, That separation of Church 
and state first perfectly realized in a civil constitu- 
tion when Roger Williams began the great experi- 
ment in Rhode Island. 

These are the principles to which the heroic hand- 
ful of men gave their allegiance who founded this 
notable church two hundred and fifty years ago 
to-day. To these principles the church has been 
true through its long and checkered history. If 
some things that were cherished as essential by 
many of those who composed its earlier member- 
ship have ceased to influence us, the things that 
cannot be shaken are still as dear to us as to them. 
To know how great has been the progress of these 
principles since they suffered in mind, body and 
estate on their behalf, it is only necessary to under- 
stand how largely those very principles have passed 
into the acknowledged faith and life of the children 
of their persecutors. 



THE BANQUET 

Monday, June 7, 6 p. m. 



npHE tables were spread in the chapel, the plat- 
* form being extended to accommodate the 
eighteen guests at the head table; and then three 
long tables extending into the small rooms at 
either end seated the remainder of the two hundred 
and fifty diners, the number being limited to the 
capacity of the chapel. 

The tables were handsomely decorated with 
mounds of yellow rosebuds and ferns, and a folder 
with a picture of the church front on its face; and 
an attractive menu and list of invited guests inside 
graced each plate. Near the close of the dinner 
each guest was happily surprised to receive from the 
hands of the ushers a colored photograph of the 
church as a fitting souvenir of the occasion. The 
entire evening was marked with a noticeable spirit 
of good fellowship. 

The quartette rendered a very acceptable musical 
program, the genial organist, Mr. Comey, presiding 
at the piano. 

Quartette — Madrigale Sullivan 

Miss Alexander Mr. Moeller 

Miss Jepperson Mr. Merrill 

Solo — " My Ain Folk" Laura Lemon 

Miss Alexander 
Solo — "A Banjo Song" Sidney Homer 

Mr. Merrill 
also three charming encores which the diners insisted on having. 




■■.'k'Vvl&^T"-' 



/ 



\..r:.' 




THE BANQUET 203 

Seated at the head table, with the toastmaster, 
Mr. Charles W. Perkins and Mrs. Perkins, were: 
Dr. Francis H. Rowley and Mrs. Rowley, Dr. 
Philip S. Moxom, Mrs. Cephas B. Crane, Dr. 
Stephen H. Roblin and Mrs. Roblin, Dr. George A. 
Gordon, Rev. Charles E. Park, Rev. Samuel R. 
Maxwell, Dr. Alexander Mann, Dr. Nathan E.Wood 
and Mrs. Wood, Dr. Austen K. de Blois and Mrs. 
de Blois, Mrs. Eliza J. Furber and Erastus B. 
Badger, the last two being the oldest living members 
of the church present, Mrs. Furber joining in April, 
1852, and Mr. Badger, in May of the same year. 

. THE TOASTMASTER 

There would be little propriety in my making 
you any address of welcome to-night. Most of 
you are gathered in your own house and are at home. 
For two days and nights we have recounted our 
own history as embodied in the achievements of 
our predecessors, and the question may have arisen 
in your minds, as in mine — "Why spend so 
much time in looking backward? Were it not 
better in the modern American spirit, to look for- 
ward to the future lest we lose the uplifted gaze 
and the forward look?" And then I recalled the 
words of Holy Writ— " Walk about Zion, and go 
round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark 
ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces: that ye 
may tell it to the generation following." 

Why? In order that they and we may gather 
encouragement from the successes of our fathers, 



204 THE BANQUET 

warning from their mistakes, and wisdom from their 
experience, for the guidance of our own steps in the 
future. They labored and suffered and we enjoy 
the fruits of their toil, and so I pray in the words of 
Kipling's famous recessional, 

"Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
Lest we forget, lest we forget." 

But to-night belongs to our friends and neighbors 
who are our guests. 

The First Baptist Church in Boston was not the 
first church in Boston. That arrived in 1630 when 
Governor Winthrop and his associates came over 
from Charlestown and settled on this peninsula. 

In the early days of the Massachusetts Bay 
Colony, no man could vote in civic affairs unless he 
was a member of the church of the "standing order/' 
and when the state arrived the church arrived with 
it. Governor Winthrop fixed his house and garden 
on Washington Street near the head of Spring 
Lane, down which he went to the spring which still 
flows under the Boston Post Office. 

The first house occupied by the church was built 
in 1632, on the southeast corner of State and Devon- 
shire Streets where the Brazer Building now stands. 
It was combined church and town house, and in 
front of it was the town whipping-post as some of 
our Baptist friends learned to their sorrow. 

The church soon wished for a separate house of 
its own and in 1640 built one on Washington Street 
opposite the southern branch of State Street, where 
it remained in two different buildings for 168 years. 



THE BANQUET 205 

In 1808 it moved to Chauncy Place, to land bought 
of Dr. Chauncy, its pastor, and in 1868 to its present 
beautiful house, corner of Berkeley and Marl- 
borough Streets. 

John Cotton was an early pastor and for many 
years some of us knew it familiarly as Dr. Ellis's 
church. 

We drink no toasts here to-night, but I find it a 
pleasure and an honor to present for your greeting 
the First Church in Boston, in the person of its 
pastor, Rev. Charles E. Park. 

RESPONSE BY REV. CHARLES E. PARK, 

PASTOR OF THE FIRST CHURCH 

IN BOSTON 

Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen: First 
of all, there is a little offering of gratitude due to 
you and the First Baptist Church, not only from me 
but from the church which I represent, for your 
invitation to be present at this time. We take 
it as an act of simple, unadulterated friendship on 
your part to issue such an invitation, and it is in a 
spirit of equally unmixed friendship that we desire 
to accept it. Real friendship is one of those rare 
commodities which loses none of its value by reason 
of its abundance. Familiarity with it can never 
breed contempt for it. It is ineffably precious to 
the man who has but a little of it, and it remains just 
as precious to him who has a plenty. We are 
constrained to assume that it was in this spirit of 
real friendship that you asked me to be present at 



206 THE BANQUET 

your two hundred fiftieth birthday party. And 
we very much want you to believe that we find 
your friendship exceedingly precious, and that it is 
in a spirit of full reciprocity that we have accepted. 
For this we are grateful — both my church and 
myself — devoutly and sincerely grateful. 

I bring you the intelligent sympathy, the under- 
standing congratulations, the comprehending felici- 
tations of the First Church in Boston. We know how 
it feels to be two hundred and fifty years old. We 
know the sense of exultation, we know the tender 
mood of reminiscence, that comes to your hearts 
at this time. And we know also the sterner emo- 
tions that inevitably attend such an occasion — the 
reawakened sense of responsibility to Almighty God, 
the reawakened attention to your tasks and ideals 
as a Church of Christ, and the eager reconsecra- 
tion of yourselves to those tasks and ideals. We 
know how it feels to contemplate the future in the 
light of the past — to realize that you of this present 
generation of living men and women are the con- 
necting link in the continuity of your church's life, 
and that all the zeal, the devotion, the holy passion 
and selfsacrifice which has accumulated during these 
past two hundred and fifty years are now seeking 
their outlet into the future through the channels of 
your fidelity, and your loyalty, and your constancy. 
It is an inspiriting, but at the same time a stern and 
uncomfortable thing to realize that you are the 
trustees of a great past, and that it lies with you 
now to vindicate the labors, and to justify the 
persecutions of the past; and to hand on to the 



THE BANQUET 207 

future the torch which has been entrusted to your 
hands, and to see to it that that torch is burning 
just as bright and clear as ever. 

That, I say, is a stern thought, but it is a thought 
which this occasion inevitably brings to your souls, 
and one which you cannot and would not avoid. 
We think that we understand how you feel. And 
we want to assure you, very briefly and very sin- 
cerely, of our sympathy, our confidence, and our 
friendship. Perhaps it may strike you as some- 
thing forced that the First Church in Boston, the 
church which Roger Williams refused to serve, a 
Unitarian Church at that, should make you a 
tender of friendship. Perhaps some of you are 
thinking of the* days of your persecution at the 
hands of the authorities. But I beg to remind you 
that there are two sides to that story of persecution. 
If some of the elders of the First Church treated 
you with evil intent, there were others like John 
Oxenbridge and James Allen who were greatly 
disturbed by your sufferings and did all in their 
power to mitigate them. If some of the governors 
of this Massachusetts theocracy cast you out of 
their synagogues and threw you into prison and 
visited you with stripes and fines, there were others, 
like Governor Leverett, who sympathized with 
you and did all in their power to shield you under the 
mantle of their large-hearted tolerance. The fact 
stands in history that there has been a strong ele- 
ment of friendship between our two churches and 
it is that side of history that I want to remember 
now, and that I want you to remember. 



208 THE BANQUET 

Moreover, there sometimes come occasions when 
our human souls are exalted to rarer levels of 
brotherhood and communion — when our temporal 
differences of opinion are seen to be very secondary 
in importance, and when the great elemental facts 
of our common Christianity take up all the room 
in our hearts. At such times we see each other 
not as Baptists, or Congregationalists, or Unita- 
rians, but as sons and daughters of a loving 
Heavenly Father, whose impartial sun shineth upon 
the evil and the good, and whose lifegiving rain fall- 
eth upon the fields of the just and the unjust; we 
see each other as lovers and followers of the same 
great Christ, serving him in different ways but with 
equal devotion. Your guests to-night feel that 
this is one such moment. Our elemental human 
brotherhood gets the better of our theology. I 
think I speak for all my fellow-guests when I say 
that we are all Baptists with you to-night. We 
offer you our love, our congratulations, and our 
high hopes for the future. 

THE TOASTMASTER 

The Second Church in Boston was formed in 
1650. It first occupied a house in North Square, 
which was often familiarly called the North Church, 
and remained there till 1776, when its house was 
destroyed by the British. It was later located 
on Hanover Street, and at some time united with 
what had been known as the Brick Church. After 
the filling in of the Back Bay it came up to Boylston 



THE BANQUET 209 

Street, opposite Copley Square, and recently, as 
business buildings once more crowded it, it again 
moved to Beacon Street corner of Audubon Road, 
where its graceful spire now forms a pleasing land- 
mark for all approaching Boston over Beacon 
Street. 

It has had several famous pastors, Increase 
Mather and his son Cotton Mather and Ralph 
Waldo Emerson being among them. 

I present to you this church, through its present 
pastor, Rev. Samuel R. Maxwell. 

RESPONSE BY THE REV. SAMUEL R. MAX- 
WELL, MINISTER OF THE SECOND 
CHURCH IN BOSTON 

Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is a 
double pleasure to me to be here, not only because 
I represent a church, but because I represent a 
church which unfortunately cannot be said to have 
been consistently friendly to this church, and be- 
cause I represent the Quakers who owe a debt to the 
Baptists. If it had not been for the English Bap- 
tists, there would be no Quakers. 

If any of you will take the trouble to study the 
history of the Second Church of Boston, you will 
find it pretty dry reading; but if you will read the 
heresy trial of the Rev. John Farrand you will find 
it the most delightful reading, so modern that you 
might think it taken out of last evening's paper. 

As I read through that account, my admiration 
for the stout defenders of the Baptist theology grew 



210 THE BANQUET 

and grew. As you know, John Farrand was in 
difficulty because he insisted that Increase Mather 
should baptize by immersion. Increase insisted 
that he should not. Sunday after Sunday John 
sat in the north gallery and watched what went on, 
and it did not please him. Finally Increase hailed 
him and bade him come down. He said, "I can 
hear you perfectly plainly from here and I do not 
need to." 

The controversy went on from day to day and 
month to month, until at last John Farrand said, 
"This is too hot for me," and left the meeting house. 
He came over to the First Baptist Church, although 
in bidding him farewell the Rev. Increase Mather 
said that he sorrowed to see a man going straight 
towards hell, and still daring to laugh at the judg- 
ments of God. After the lapse of some years the 
Rev. Increase Mather was caught looking in the 
direction of John Farrand, and in 1683 he was 
admitted to his old parish once more. 

You can see the influence this church of yours 
had, in view of the fact that the Second Church 
did not take back John Farrand until he had re- 
ceived a letter of dismissal from the elders of the 
First Baptist Church. 

Cotton Mather, in discussing the question of 
closed or open communions, said that open com- 
munions were as precious as the effulgence of 
Corinthian brass. If he could see this gathering 
to-night, I think he would say that the day of 
Corinthian brass had arrived. I bring you the 
greetings of my parish and assure you that we shall 



THE BANQUET 211 

no longer consign anybody to the care of Satan 
when he turns in the direction of the First Baptist 
Church. 

THE TOASTMASTER 

The First Baptist was the third church in Bos- 
ton, being formed in 1665, but the people of that 
time did not recognize it as a church. 

The third church of the "standing order" was 
formed in 1669, being that familiarly known to us 
as the Old South. What memories that name 
awakens! It has had but two locations. The first 
house, built of wood, at the corner of Washington 
and Milk Streets (on land given to it by Mrs. 
Norton), was destroyed by fire, and the second, 
built of brick on the same spot, in 1729, still remains 
and is secured for all time as a patriotic monument. 
In it have taken place more famous events than in 
any other church building in Boston; General 
Warren's noted address, the meeting from which 
sallied forth the Boston Tea Party, the desecration 
as a cavalry barracks by the British, — these and 
similar deeds made it almost if not quite as much the 
Cradle of Liberty as Faneuil Hall. The great fire 
of 1872, sweeping down Washington Street from 
Summer Street, turned at this corner and left the 
historic building unmarred. Shortly after that 
fire the church built its present magnificent house 
on Boylston and Dartmouth Streets and we are 
close neighbors in every sense. 

Some of us have heard Dr. Blagden and his son- 
in-law Dr. Manning preach in the old "meeting- 

15 



212 THE BANQUET 

house" under the great sounding board that looked 
to us like a huge extinguisher. 

It gives me pleasure and honor to present to you 
the present pastor of the Old South, that bonnie 
Scot, Rev. George A. Gordon, D.D. 

RESPONSE BY THE REV. GEORGE A. 
GORDON, D.D., PASTOR OF THE 
OLD SOUTH CHURCH 

Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen: In ac- 
quainting yourselves with your own great history, 
you have done some of your guests a service in com- 
pelling them to dig up the respective histories of 
their churches. The preceding speakers, Dr. Park 
and Dr. Maxwell, have nobly told of your great 
men of the past. What is left for me to do? To 
bring the universal down to the particular. And so 
I am going to tell you about my relations with the 
Baptists. 

The first Baptist I knew was John Bunyan. I 
was captivated with his book, although my mother 
told me I did not understand one word of it, and 
could not till I had had a change of heart. I did 
understand it. I felt the mystic touch of its splen- 
did allegory. That was my first acquaintance 
with the Baptists. 

My next acquaintance was unhappy. I went to 
live with an uncle who was a Baptist. I was about 
eleven. He was a good man. He laughed once in 
awhile, but not often. He was a great devotee of 
Spurgeon and read his sermons to me every Sunday 



THE BANQUET 213 

morning, with comments so that I might under- 
stand them. Afterwards I was compelled to go to 
church. If I could have got at that man Spurgeon, 
I would have choked him. Years afterwards I 
heard that prophet of God speak, and I forgave 
him for the outrage his sermons had committed 
upon my youth. He was a great man and a great 
soul. 

My next contact was with Robert Hall, the most 
cultivated mind in the pulpit of the English-speak- 
ing world of his generation. I liked him for two 
things. He knew how to use the English language. 
And I liked him because of his splendid courage. 

The next incident is curious and interesting. 
When I came to the Old South Church, A. J. Gor- 
don was minister of the Clarendon Street Church. 
Both churches had a sociable on the same evening. 
A kindly gentleman wanted to send ten gallons of 
ice cream to Dr. Gordon's Church. It was in- 
tended for the Clarendon Street Church, but it was 
delivered to us. The other church complained, and 
the dealer said, "But we certainly sent it to Dr. 
Gordon's church — the Old South." A messenger 
came down to the Old South for it, but it had gone 
beyond the reach of anything other than a stomach- 
pump. However we sent by the messenger a vote 
of thanks to the gentleman who sent us the ice 
cream; later we took up a collection to pay for it. 

I have known six of the nineteen ministers of 
this church. I remember Dr. Neale, whose shock 
of white hair inspired reverence and whose kindly 
face made one believe that he represented the best 



214 THE BANQUET 

things in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Dr. 
Crane came to welcome me when I came to the Old 
South Church. He was a friend and a father. 
Then for eight years Dr. Moxom and I worked 
shoulder to shoulder. After Dr. Moxom came Dr. 
Wood, and during his office there was the same 
happy friendship between our two churches and 
their ministers. Dr. Rowley continued this suc- 
cession with a charm all his own. Your present 
pastor, Dr. de Blois, worthily represents this de- 
lightful tradition. The Baptist denomination has 
stood for the great principle of individuality. 
Perhaps this principle has been overdone, and the 
new social feeling has come to supplement it. Yet 
even that would be a scourge if it ever should domi- 
nate and subordinate the great fundamental truth 
of individual rights and individual importance. 
Imagine a state which took no account of the power 
of individuality, and used human beings as simple 
machinery for the expression of its tyrannous power, 
and you will realize what a church is worth when it 
stands for individuality in the whole of life. I am 
perfectly sure that we are bound to go back to the 
fundamental importance of the individual man and 
his rights in the state and in religion. 

I close with a word from one of the greatest of 
foreign missionaries: " Expect great things from 
God; attempt great things for God." Face the 
future, I beg of you, my dear friends, in the strength 
of that great motto. I bring you the honor and 
love, the sympathy and the hope of the Old South 
people. If I have spoken with levity, let me remind 



THE BANQUET 21 5 

you that we are four years younger than you and 
levity is becoming in the young. 

THE TOASTMASTER 

The Second Society of Universalists in Boston 
was founded in 1817 by Dr. Hosea Ballou. There 
had been a previous one, formed in 1773, but it 
seems to have disappeared. The Second Society 
located first in School Street, but in 1872 it built a 
fine house on Columbus Avenue, corner of Claren- 
don Street. Two noted pastors were Dr. E. H. 
Chapin and Dr. A. A. Miner. The latter was one 
of the staunchest advocates of temperance and 
total abstinence this city ever had. A strong de- 
fender of the liquor interests once said that the 
hardest thing he had to fight was that continual 
song in A. A. minor, and he was sick of it. 

If our brethren of other denominations have not 
passed through the water with us they certainly 
have through the fire. Hardly a church has been 
mentioned to-night which has not had at least one 
house burned. There are three churches on Clar- 
endon Street. The Clarendon Street Baptist was 
burned out in 1874 an d again in 191 2, and since 
that the Universalist house has been nearly de- 
stroyed. To sympathize is literally to ''suffer with" 
those through whose affliction we have also passed, 
and we surely sympathize with the Second Univer- 
salist Society. 

I am glad to introduce its pastor, Rev. S. H* 
Roblin, D.D. 



216 THE BANQUET 

RESPONSE BY THE REV. STEPHEN H. 

ROBLIN, D.D., PASTOR OF THE FIRST 

UNIVERSALIST CHURCH 

Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen: This is 
the season of felicitations. I think I have enjoyed 
the " bouquets" which you have received to-night 
as much as I have witnessing the actual bouquets 
and felicitations received by the graduates whom we 
have with us at this period of the year. Only your 
graduation is so noble that these felicitations, fine 
as they have been, are hardly adequate to meet the 
demand of merit this occasion marks. For a 
church to have lived, to have loved, to have 
wrought as much as you have done for two hun- 
dred and fifty years is unique. To you, the most 
precious offerings should be made. 

Your guests to-night are very desirous of reveal- 
ing some bond of relationship with you. It is 
always so when one has come to greatness that lesser 
folk love to think they are bound to the great one 
in some way — and so I have been hunting around 
to see where we come in. 

And in my search I found that the first pastor of 
the church which I serve was brought up in a 
Baptist home by a Baptist father and mother, and 
that through the early years of his life he was taught 
the old-fashioned doctrines. And I want to say 
that if such doctrines can make such men as Hosea 
Ballou, they are good doctrines! Later, it is true, 
he worked out his own theology. 

Though Dr. Miner was not a Baptist, yet he was 



THE BANQUET 21 7 

greatly interested in your church and especially in 
the Newton Theological Institution. It is said 
that one night he was coming in from the seminary 
on a street-car. In the car were some students, and 
a very drunken citizen. The students contrasted 
the hilarity of the drunken man with the austerity 
of the good Doctor, and were doubtless much edi- 
fied. Then the drunken man engaged Dr. Miner in 
conversation. "You know how 'tis, yourself," he 
explained, and the story was told with delight at 
the institution. 

I have come to know in a very happy way several 
Baptist representatives, and among them Dr. A. J. 
Gordon. If ever there was a saint on earth, it was 
Dr. Gordon. I recall that wonderful saying of his 
at the Presbyterian Assembly at Saratoga when he 
was called upon to speak for the Baptist Church. 
He said" We are separated by the sacramental water, 
but we are united in the sacrificial blood and blood is 
thicker than water." And I feel that whatever our 
sacraments may be, that if these sacraments are 
used in a spirit of love, our churches, by the influ- 
ence of that united spirit, shall be drawn closer and 
closer together, so that it may be ever more and 
more true that, as Dr. Gordon said, we are united 
in the sacrificial blood. 

I bring to you the felicitations of my church to- 
night. My people send you their love and best 
wishes and hope that the past shall find the present 
yet more rich with the grace of God, and that the 
future of this church may be even more blessed 
than the past has been through all these long and 



21 8 THE BANQUET 

testing years. It is the hope of my congregation, 
and it is my hope, and I know it is your hope, that 
we shall go onward and upward towards the Delec- 
table Mountains together. The partition stones are 
going down, the walls themselves are crumbling 
away. We are all praying the same kind of prayers 
to the same Heavenly Father. It is our prayer 
to-night that the winds of God may blow for you 
and bear you on your way. 

THE TOASTMASTER 

The Methodists were not in Boston when this 
church was founded. Indeed they were not any- 
where, for the Wesleys did not begin to form their 
societies till 1729. The first Methodist society 
in this country was formed in New York in 1766 
They spread rapidly and have become one of the 
most numerous and powerful of the Christian de- 
nominations. 

They are best represented in this city by Boston 
University, founded in 1869. Many of you will 
recall Isaac Rich, Jacob Sleeper and others of its 
founders. It quickly absorbed the Theological 
School and other existing institutions and became 
the large University which it now is. We came 
into close touch with it, for it bought our former 
house on Somerset Street and its Jacob Sleeper Hall 
was a remodelling of our old audience room. While 
occupying a number of scattered buildings it has 
removed its academic and administration depart- 
ments to that adjoining the Public Library, formerly 






THE BANQUET 219 

used by the Harvard Medical School, and so has 
become our neighbor. 

I expected to introduce its president, Lemuel H. 
Murlin, D.D., but he has been suddenly called away 
and on such short notice that he was unable to pro- 
vide a substitute. 

Trinity Church was not the first Episcopal 
church in Boston. That was formed in 1686 and 
built King's Chapel which is still a familiar sight 
at the corner of Tremont and School Streets. Our 
Puritan fathers did not like them any better than 
they did the Baptists, though for a different reason, 
and their coming drew a sharp line through the 
community, social as well as religious. 

Trinity Church was formed in 1728 and has had 
but two houses of worship. The first, a fine granite 
structure on Summer Street, corner of Hawley 
Street, was utterly destroyed by the great fire of 
1872, and in 1875 the church came to its present 
magnificent house on Copley Square. 

It, too, has been fortunate in its pastors, or rectors. 
Phillips Brooks would have made any church fa- 
mous. It has now no lack of an eloquent divine in 
its present rector, Dr. Alexander Mann. 

RESPONSE BY REV. ALEXANDER MANN, 
D.D., RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH 

Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen: The 
sufferings of the Church of England in the Colony 
of Massachusetts Bay were akin to those of that 
suffering ' ' First Baptist Church of Boston. ' ' What- 
ever we were in England, whatever we did in Eng- 



220 THE BANQUET 

land to the Puritans, I am sure all who are familiar 
with the early history of the Colony of Massachu- 
setts Bay will agree with me that those old scores 
were paid back with good interest. 

The Puritans did not like us. We did not like 
them. I must recall a fact of history to your minds 
to-night, and that is that the three hills of Boston, 
so far as right of prior occupation went, belonged 
to the communion which I represent. The springs 
had already been found, appreciated, and appro- 
priated by the Rev. Mr. Blackstone. When the 
Puritans came, he moved out. He did not want 
to leave Boston, but his habits and his disposition 
were altogether too sociable for the Puritans, and 
he found that it was better for him to move. He 
said, "I left England, because I disliked my lords, 
the bishops; and I left Massachusetts Bay because 
I liked still less my lords, the brethren." He moved 
to Rhode Island. If you will review history, I think 
you will agree with me that in persecutions and 
sufferings the Church of England in Boston is at one 
with the suffering First Baptist Church. 

Dr. Gordon has referred to his contacts with the 
Baptists. I have not had many; but I had one. 
My grandfather was a Scotch minister who came 
across the water to preach to the Scotchmen in the 
western part of the state of New York. Their 
theology was altogether too moderate for him. 
They did not have the blood and iron he was 
accustomed to. He preached for them, until they 
asked him to stop. Then he went to farming, and 
gathered about him a group of Scotchmen like him- 



THE BANQUET 221 

self, and to them he expounded the gospel to their 
own salvation, and the probable loss of everybody 
else. However, I had some aunts who were Bap- 
tists, and my earliest contact with the Baptist 
church was through the Baptist Sunday School. I 
much preferred to climb up in the cherry tree and 
eat cherries than to attend that Sunday school, and 
between them and the Sunday school I lost all 
chance of being able to come here and claim mem- 
bership as a Baptist. 

Something was said here to-night about the con- 
tribution that the Baptist church has made to the 
cause of our common Christianity. There is no 
question about that. The credit belongs to you 
more than to any one other church community. 
You have emphasized the sacredness of the individ- 
ual, the responsibility of the individual soul to 
God. I take it that there is no other communion 
in all the American commonwealth that has so 
emphasized by its teachings and by its sufferings 
that great truth. 

Yet I cannot go with my friend, Dr. Gordon, and 
say that what the country most needs now is more 
emphasis upon that great truth. I think that truth 
has been demonstrated. I believe, moreover, that 
some men have fought so hard for individualism 
that they forget there is anything else. No per- 
sonality ever came to itself except through relation 
with other personalities. And so this great idea of 
individualism needs a corrective. And in my humble 
opinion, that is the great task that confronts Ameri- 
can Protestant Christianity. What we need and 



222 THE BANQUET 

what we have got to have is some principle of solid- 
arity, some centre around which, with no sacrifice of 
faith or order, we may yet bring together these 
scattered divisions of Protestant Christianity. 

If you imagine that we are going to hold our own 
or make headway against the great disciplined hosts 
of Roman Catholicism in this country by carrying 
on our present guerrilla warfare, you are very much 
mistaken. 

Now right here, perhaps, the communion I repre- 
sent has a contribution to make. We have learned 
much from you. If you will contrast our govern- 
ment here with the great Mother Church of Eng- 
land of which we are the daughter, you will see how 
greatly American Protestantism has influenced the 
Episcopal Church towards freedom and democracy. 
And still we have held on to the old principle of 
reasonable authority, and we are still conscious of 
our solidarity, of standing, not in terms of the in- 
dividual, but in terms of the whole society. And I 
cannot but feel that the Episcopal Church has a 
contribution to make towards our common Ameri- 
can Protestantism. 

Dr. Smythe of Connecticut says that in his judg- 
ment the Episcopal Church holds the key to the 
reunion of American Protestantism. I think that 
is so, for we are not to-day what the Church of Eng- 
land was in the days of the Colonies. What we are 
today, we are by virtue of our contact with the great 
Protestant communions in this country, and the 
Baptists not least among them. As we have re- 
ceived much from you, we have also, perhaps, 



THE BANQUET 223 

something distinctive and something vital that we 
may give. So I am glad to stand here to-night and 
congratulate you upon these two hundred and fifty 
years of life here in Boston. There will be some 
years yet before Trinity Church celebrates even its 
second centennial. We are some fifty or more 
years younger than you, and yet we have been here 
long enough to feel something of the same pride in 
Boston that you are conscious of to-day. And if 
that Boston of the future is going to be what it 
ought to be, it is going to come through the strong- 
est possible combination of our great moral and re- 
ligious forces. I can see that we have all got to 
work together in this city for great moral and social 
advances and bring to bear upon the problems of 
the day something of the force of a great Christian 
solidarity. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX 

The following is a full list of the five hundred members of the 
Shawmut Avenue Church that joined the First Baptist Church 
May 24, 1877; together with the year of their uniting with the old 
church. The order of entry and the spelling are the same as in the 
original records. 



Abbott, Alice 


* 


Bearse, Mary E. 


1 868 


Frances L. 


1871 


Beals, William 


1869- 


Adams, Adoniram J. 


1856 


Beckford, Emily L. 


1874 


Lucy H. 


1873 


Belcher, Mary J. 


1859 1 


William K. 


1871 


Bennett, Frances A. 


1 87 1 


Harriet J. 


1856 


Berry, Annie H. 


1872- 


Edward D. 


1866 


Mary L. 


1872 


Fannie A. 


1871 


Bicknell, Fred H. 


1866 


Walter B: 


1865 


Sarah M. 


1866 


Elizabeth M. 


1869 


Black, Sarah A. 


1873 


Charles A. 


1876 


Bolden, Martha 


1856 


Esmeralda C. 


1877 


Boulton, Eugene A. 


1870 


Sarah C. 


1875 


Bohannan, Amanda J. 


1873 


Aiken, Dr. Elisha W. 


1871 


Nancy 


1873 


Melissa C. 


1871 


Elizabeth 


1873 


Allen, William H. 


1871 


Bosworth, Susan 


1870 


Emily D. C. 


1867 


Bowers, Howard M. 


1871 


Alexander, Mary 


1871 


Lucy J. 


1 87 1 


Atkinson, Sarah 


1864 


Sarah E. 


187 1 


Andrew, Arthur E. 


1875 


Fannie B. 


187 1 


Anderson, Andrew P. 


1872 


Brooks, Eliza 


1872: 


Jane L. 


1872 


Bowker, Sarah H. 


1876 






Bowman, John A. 


1872 


Bailey, Dr. William 


1875 


Emma 


1872* 


Pamelia W. 


1875 


Winnie E. 


1873 


Susan B. 


1875 


Boynton, Mary J. 


1867 


Sarah J. 


1877 


Bray, Albert 


1873 


Ball, J. Warren (D. M. 


D.) 1870 


Broaders, Adeline L. 


1864 


Barrett, Mary E. 


1866 


Brooks, Walter C. 


1875 


Barker, Israel 


1871 


Brockway, Louisa L. 


1856 



* Date not given either in the Clerk's Records, or the Membership List. 
16 



228 


APPENDIX 




Brown, William D. 


i860 


Coburn, Maria P. 


1862 


Eliza 


i860 


Coles, Louisa 


1873 


Charlotte 


i860 


Comey, Henry H. 


1866 


Sarah E. 


1873 


Carrie E. 


1865 


Polly 


1863 


Converse, Costello C. 


1866 


Mary M. 


1869 


Emma M. 


1866 


Ida P. 


1871 


Charles H. 


1874 


Gilbert C, Jr. 


1877 


Martha E. 


1874 


Bryant, Clarissa 


1862 


Corlew, Sarah E. 


1867 


Francis A. W. 


1871 


Corthell, Mary M. 


1866 


Buyrn, Rev. E. M. 


1865 


Conley, Frank L. 


1872 


Burgess, Lucy L. 


1875 


Cox, Amelia A. 


1875 






Craggs, Mary A. 


1871 


Capen, Edward W. 


1866 


Cudworth, Samuel S. 


1869 


Lucretia A. 


1866 


Almira 


1869 


William H. 


1876 


Currier, Gideon 


1871 


Eliza 


1857 


Jane A. 


1857 


Henrietta 


1858 


Cutler, Rest 


1871 


Carnes, Eliza L. 


1872 


Cutter, George W. 


1856 


Carney, S. H. 


1863 


Mary D. 


1856 


Carter, Isaac H. 


1872 


Cushing, Ada M. 


1867 


James M. 


1867 


Samuel T. 


1862 


Frances A. 


1873 


Cummings, Frances M. 


1875 


Champlin, Sarah L. 


1873 


Cordis, Adelaide E. 


1877 


Chick, Frank S. 


1875 






Chubb, Charles 


1871 


Dane, Charles R. 


1863 


Chipman, William H. 


1871 


Louisa C. 


1863 


Caroline S. 


1871 


Henry C. 


1870 


Chaffee, Hannah 


1869 


Dale, Sarah A. 


1871 


Church, Charles H. 


1869 


Daggett, Willard E. 


1871 


Chandler, Albert F. 


i860 


Mary A. 


1871 


Sarah F. 


1866 


Daniels, John E. 


1873 


Cifre, Rev. Ricardo P. 


1873 


Elizabeth H. 


1873 


Sarah B. 


1873 


Lizzie E. 


1873 


Clark, Mary I. 


1871 


Dairs, Mary E. 


1861 


Bessie M. 


1869 


Davidson, Louisa B. 


1867 


Betsy 


1871 


Deane, John K. 


1856 


George F. 


1872 


S. Louisa 


1871 


Cleveland, Perry J. 


i860 


Derby, Eliza G. 


1863 


Abbie H. 


i860 


Dexter, Charles W. 


1864 


Clapp, Julius M. 


1873 


Sarah E. 


1864 


Cleaves, Elizabeth 


1868 


Devine, Charlotte R. 


1871 



APPENDIX 



229 



Dodge, Maggie A. 


1872 


Gleason, Sarah 


1876 


Dopp, Mrs. Hannah 


1868 


Godfrey, Isabella 


1861 


Drew, George H. 


1866 


Goodwin, Zilpha C. 


1861 


Clara B. 


1866 


Graham, William E. 


1869 


Dunklee, Benj. W. 


1861 


Martha E. 


1869 


Eliza A. 


1861 


Ella E. 


1869 


Flora B. 


1866 


Gray, Rachael T. 


1858 


Dyer, Caleb H. 


1871 


Edward J. 


1862 


Martha 


1871 


Greene, Phoebe 


1873 


Lydia A. 


1872 


Griffin, Charles T. 


1867 


William H. 


1877 


Fannie M. 


1867 






Griggs, Edward W. 


1871 


Eaton, William E. 


1876 


Gutterson, William E. 


1871 


Evans, Brice S. 


1856 


Sarah F. 


1862 


Sarah M. 


1871 


Mary L. 


1875 


Everett, Erastus D. 


1859 






Emerson, Fannie H. 


1867 


Haley, Lydia W. 


1856 


Emery, Thomas J. 


1877 


Haynes, Ellen H. 


1862 






Hastings, Caroline A. 


1862 


Fay, Marianna P. 


1858 


Harris, William G. 


1864 


Farriel, Robert C. 


1872 


Julia A. 


1864 


Fernald, Eliza T. 


1862 


William L. 


1865 


Flint, Annie 


1872 


Mary S. 


1873 


Fogg, Maria E. 


1871 


Alice M. 


1873 


Flanders, Fred K. 


1876 


Henry S. 


1866 


Ford, Justin H. 


1873 


John E. 


1867 


Mary D. 


i860 


Hanson, Clara A. 


1872 


Fosdick, William 


1869 


Laura B. 


1871 


Elizabeth T. 


1869 


Katherine M. 


1872 


James W. 


1871 


Hathaway, H. Augusta 


1871 


Foster, Charlotte M. 


1862 


Hall, Samuel A. 


1872 


Susan S. 


1866 


Emma E. 


1872 


Nancy L. 


1866 


Haynes, Lizzie 


1874 


Martha A. 


1866 


Hadaway, Harriet 


1865 


Fulton, Georgianna 


1862 


Hayward, Etta A. 


1866 


Fuller, Hannah 


1872 


Henry, George W. 


1867 


Fowle, Lucy M. 


1862 


Hervey, Elizabeth K. 


1867 






Healey, Joseph P. 


1871 


Gardner, Mrs. A. E. 


1868 


Hinckley, Amelia M. 


1871 


Annie H. 


1876 


Hill, Jacob J. 


1871 


Garrett, Sarah S. 


1872 


Maria P. 


1871 


Gilman, Lottie W. 


1871 


Higher, Carrie E. 


1871 



230 



APPENDIX 



Hopkins, Richard B. 


1862 


Kimball, Susan E. 


1873 


Samuel B. 


1867 


Elizabeth F. 


1873 


Rebecca 


1867 


Knight, Sarah A. 


1867 


Warren B. 


1867 


Mrs. Sarah W. 


1856 


Lucy B. 


* 






William F. 


1871 


Latham, Susan B. 


1866 


Matilda R. 


1871 


Ladd, Marietta 


1871 


Henry B. 


1871 


Lamb, B. F. 


1871 


William A. 


1871 


Lancey, S. Herbert 


1865 


Maude G. 


1873 


Leach, Sarah L. 


1857 


Samuel B., 2d 


1877 


Ellen E. 


1858 


Holyoke, Dr. William C. 


1876 


Learned, Francis H. 


1865 


Huggins, Mary L. 


1857 


S. Josephine 


1865 


Isabelle G. 


1858 


Lewis, Samuel R. 


1871 






Alwilda C. 


1871 


James, Elisha 


1862 


Linscott, Daniel C. 


1868 


Mary A. 


1862 


Annie B. 


1868 


Ellen A. 


1865 


Roswell 


1871 


Frank E. 


1869 


Lovering, Lucy H. 


1872 


Edward P. 


1871 


Lowell, Addie H. 


1871 


Mrs. Sarah 


1869 


Lunt, Mary S. 


1857 


Jacques, Otis 


1873 


Luddington, Caroline E. 


1871 


Johnson, Pauline 


1862 


Luther, Benj. S. 


1871 


Louisa A. 


1869 


Flora 


1871 


Jones, Edward J. 


1867 


Leach, Elbridge C. 


1876 


Emily D. 


1867 






Helen M. 


1871 


Marshall, Ednah F. 


1856 


Richard F. 


1871 


Macomber, Francis E. 


1867 


Daniel C. 


1871 


Caroline 


1871 


Caroline E. 


1871 


Sarah M. 


1876 


Rosa E. 


1873 


Sarah N. 


1876 


Isaac H. 


1863 


Walter S. 


1877 


Anna W. 


1863 


Josie H. 


1877 


Jacobs, Mrs. E. S. 


1877 


Chandler 


1877 






Martin, Mrs. Mary 


1868 


Kenfield, Catherine 


1856 


Mather, Caleb T. 


1871 


Susan M. 


1862 


Mary E. 


1871 


Eva E. 


1866 


Manning, Emma C. 


1871 


King, Katie 


1867 


McKown, John O. 


1862 


Kimball, Mary L. 


1871 


. William G. 


1862 


Daniel F. 


1873 


Ellen H. 


1862 



* Date not given either in the Clerk's Records, or the Membership List. 





APPENDIX 


S3I 


McCrillis, John 


1862 


Parker, Benjamin Jr. 


1862 


McLellan, Mary F. 


1865 


Caroline E. 


1862 


Mclntire, Lorenzo S. 


1871 


Charles F. 


1863 


Elizabeth 


1867 


Julia A. 


1863 


McGee, John A. 


1872 


Eliza A. 


1872 


Merrow, Flora E. 


1873 


Emma E. 


1 861 


Merriam, Grace S. 


1877 


Grace L. 


1876 


Metcalf, Mary J. 


1866 


Parks, Sarah 


1873 


Millis, Lansing 


i860 


Perkins, Fannie L. 


1865 


Harriet P. 


i860 


Peters, Henry W. 


1866 


Henry L. 


1871 


Peterson, Marianna L. 


1867 


Milliken, Elizabeth 


1864 


Charles H. 


1877 


Morrill, Julia A. 


1866 


Byron G. 


1869 


Julia L. 


1867 


Pendleton, John 


1871 


Morton, Francis F. 


1862 


Martha J. 


1871 


Elizabeth 


1862 


Gertrude M. 


1869 


Frank M. 


1876 


Perkins, Ada A. 


1873 


Marion B. 


1876 


Phinney, Lucy T. 


1858 


Moseley, George H. 


1871 


Philbrook, Levi N. 


1867 


Laura 


1873 


Pierce, Willemina 


1868 


Marin, Manuel C. 


1876 


Adelaide L. 


1868 






Edward H. 


1868 


Newton, Eleanor F. 


1871 


Pike, Nathan 


1872 


Newhall, Henry S. 


1874 


Piper, Mary E. 


1873 


Lizzie W. 


1874 


Plummer, Hannah F. 


1866 


Nickerson, Caroline K. 


1859 


Erving V. 


1867 


Nichols, Harriet F. 


1870 


Almy C. 


1870 


Nellie A. 


1873 


Elgina M. 


1870 


Nute, Annie R. 


1871 


Pond, Moses W. 


1864 


Nye, Sarah H. 


1872 


Nancy 


1866 






Eliza B. 


1871 


Ogden, John T. 


1871 


Potter, Caroline 


1873 


Charlotte A. 


1868 


John L. 


1873 


Ordway, John A. 


1871 


Abraham L. 


1873 


Charlotte W. 


1871 


Edith F. H. 


1873 


George D. T. 


1858 


Pressey, Charles A. 


1865 


Olmstead, Rev. John W. 


1866 


Edward P. 


1865 


Mary L. 


1866 


Presby, Ida A. 


1877 


James M. 


1867 


Prescott, A. Frank 


1866 


Osborn, Sarah B. 


1861 


Preston, Letitia 


1872 






Putnam, James R. 


1871 


Palmer, Dudley R. 


1856 


Mary J. 


1871 



232 


APPENDIX 




Putnam, George E. B. 


1871 


Snow, Amanda T. 


1864 


Ida J. 


1871 


Mercie T. 


1865 






Soesman, Isaac J. 


1856 


Ray, Mrs. Sarah E. 


1871 


Lois M. 


1856 


Sarah M. 


1871 


Spence, Lucy B. 


1858 


Ramsey, Jennett 


1862 


Lucy F. 


1863 


Randall, Paul K. 


1862 


Spear, Emma M. 


1865 


H. Louisa E. 


1862 


Stevens, Nellie M. 


1876 


Frank E. 


1865 


Mattie J. 


* 


Reed, Cornelia H. 


1861 


Stetson, Sarah M. 


1861 


George H. 


1871 


Stedman, Albert 


1866 


Mattie E. 


* 


Stewart, Richard W. 


1870 


Richardson, Martha M. 


1856 


Josephine E. 


1870 


Hannah H. 


1871 


Mary A. 


1871 


Robinson, William S. 


1866 


Stockbridge, Susan 


1871 


Robbins, William H. 


1866 


Stoddard, Annie J. 


1871 


Esther S. 


1866 


Sullivan, Mattie 


1871 


B. Maria 


1866 






Betsy F. 


1870 


Taylor, Frances G. 


1864 


Roberts, Charles F. 


1871 


Temple, Hannah M. 


1867 


Sarah P. 


1870 


Grace L. 


1876 


Mary C. 


1870 


Thacher, Mary E. 


1869 


Grace C. B. 


1875 


Tharby, Jennie M. 


1871 


William 


1876 


Thomas, Annie C. 


1866 


Ann 


1876 


Thompson, Eliza 


1875 






Tower, Elisha 


1856 


Sargeant, Arthur W. 


1873 


Tolman, Sophie A. 


1866 


Mrs. A. W. 


1873 


Trim, Robert H. 


1871 


Sawyer, Sarah L. 


1871 


Tuttle, Albion J. 


1871 


Shailer, Julius C. 


1867 


, Rosetta L. 


1871 


Robert A. 


1867 






Grace E. 


* 


Vose, Emma R. 


1858 


Kate R. 


1867 


James W. 


1856 


Simpson, John K., Jr. 


1863 


Almira H. 


1856 


Alice F. 


1871 


Irving B. 


1867 


Smith, Mary 0. 


1856 


Willard A. 


1867 


Franklin W. 


1858 






Laura A. 


1859 


White, Elisha M. 


1874 


Robert G. 


1869 


Amelia H. 


1874 


Martha A. 


1873 


Whitney, Lucretia M. F. 


1862 


Ella F. 


1876 


Whitford, Hattie M. 


1876 



Date not given either in the Clerk's Records, or the Membership List. 





APPENDIX 


233 


Whittier, Abel C. 


1876 


Washburn, William 'Jr. 


1871 


Sarah A. 


1876 


Sarah L. 


1871 


Willard, Ephraim 


1857 


Webster, Elizabeth L. 


1867 


Olive J. 


1857 


Wheaton, Jane M. 


1858 


Fannie L. 


1871 


Whelock, Dwight 


1862 


Willis, James D. K. 


1869 


Mrs. Abbie 


1868 


Mrs. Ellen A. 


1869 


Abbie H. 


1875 


Mary C. 


1869 


Whittemore, Lamson D. 


1872 


Ellen A. 


1869 


Anna G. 


1866 


Williams, Carrie E. 


1872 


Whitehead, Elizabeth E. 


1872 


Charles T. , 


1871 


White, Emma J. 


1873 


Carrie L. 


1871 


Woodworth, Alfred S. 


1866 


Wilkins, Frank P. 


1873 


Annie G. 


1866 


Winn, John S. 


1863 


Herbert G. 


1872 


Wood, Caroline 


i860 


Gertrude W. 


1872 


Waitte, Ascha A. 


1871 


Wyman, Mary Ann 


1868 


Urania M. 


1866 






Walters, Mrs. Nancy 


1871 






Waller, Mary E. 


1869 


Young, Charles H. 


i860 


Mary D. 


1869 


Sophia 


1863 


Waterman, Carlos W. 


1872 


Amanda J. 


1865 


Lucy A. 


1873 






Watson, Mary C. 


1871 


Zoll, Mrs. M. Lavinia 


* 



* Date not given either in the Clerk's Records, or the Membership List. 



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